We all know the setting. You’re sitting by the bonfire over the summer probably perfecting your s’more and all the sudden you have a sudden urge to slap your leg. You wonder if you killed that mosquito fast enough before it drew enough blood out of you to cause an itch. Sure enough, five minutes later it looks like a small tumor and itches like crazy. A little while later, you look down and your whole leg seems to have been bit..but your friend who was sitting right next to you doesn’t have one bite. You wonder why mosquitos are so attracted to you. That’s what I’ve been looking into.
After reading multiple articles, I came across this one written by Melissa Breyer which covers some of the factors that can cause a mosquito to be drawn to someone. Some people may automatically blame their blood. I know I’ve heard people say “mosquitos are attracted to my blood because its sweet.” While blood being “sweet” ,per say, may not be the answer; blood type definitely is a factor! The article mentions how mstudyosquitos are most attracted to Type O blood, then Type B and lastly Type A. (I can’t even tell you what blood type I am and I feel like thats something I should know.. oops). But how does the mosquito just happen to know what blood type you are even though its inside of you? Apparently humans secrete a scent that identifies their blood type (85% of humans). (I think that’s so cool).
Another strange factor mosquitos take into their feeding is pregnancy. Pregnant women exhale a lot of carbon dioxide and that attracts the mosquitos initially. As well as that, their bodies are typically warmer and if they sweat, that will do two things: give off their blood type as i mentioned before and make them moist/sweaty which mosquitos absolutely love. The pesky bug also has good eyes and can scope out humans by apparel. Wearing bright and easily visible clothes makes people an easy target for the mosquitos. Wearing camouflage clothes rather than a neon shirt will definitely help protect you against nasty bites.
As well as that, believe it or not, mosquitos have a strange tendency to be attracted to beer. Based on one study researchers found that mosquitos had landed on and bit people that had just drank a 12 ounce beer over someone that had not. This is because the alcohol in your system goes back to the thought of body temperature rising and tendency to sweat. To me, this means that someone that drinks any kind of alcohol should have the same reaction, not just from beer exclusively (but that’s just my hypothesis).
I hope this got you thinking about your summer attire or oder, but, my best advice for someone after researching this topic would probably be to wear bug spray, deodorant and pray that you’re not Blood Type O.
