Isn’t it too troublesome to see and be surrounded by mosquitoes all the time. You must feel like mecca for mosquitoes or probably a mosquito magnet. You’re having a good day and then you witness a swarm of mosquitoes following you. The threat? A pierce to your skin, leaving behind an itchy red welt and possibly even a serious illness. As you swat madly at the pests, you notice that others seem completely unfazed. Could it be that mosquitoes prefer to bite some people over others? Ever thought what lures these insidious creatures to chose you over others? Understanding why, would surely be helping you avoiding them.
“High attractor types” is the name given to the group of people who attract mosquitoes more than anyone else.
The following are some reasons which turn normals to high attractor types.
- Apparel
Mosquitoes actually use their eyes to target victims. They are highly visual, “especially later in the afternoon, and their first mode of search for humans is through vision.” Wearing dark colors (navy, black) and red make you easier to spot.
- Blood Types
It’s all about the blood for mosquitoes; well that and nectar. Adult mosquitoes survive on nectar for nourishment, but females rely on the protein in our blood for the production of eggs. So it’s little surprising that some blood types may be more desirable than others. Research has found, in fact, that people with Type O blood are found to be twice as attractive to mosquitoes than those with Type A blood; Type B people were in the middle.
- Gas
Mosquitoes can sense carbon dioxide up to 160 feet away; so the more one exhales, the more attractive they become. Larger people exhale more. Also to note, since human beings exhale carbon dioxide through the nose and mouth, mosquitoes are attracted to our heads, which explains the whole “mosquitoes buzzing about the ears all night” misery.
- Heat and sweat
Mosquitoes apparently have a nose for other scents besides carbon dioxide; they can sniff down victims through the lactic acid, uric acid, ammonia and other compounds emitted in sweat. They also like people who run warmer; a hot sweaty human must seem quite delicious to them.
- Beer
Who knew mosquitoes had a taste for beer? The little lushes. In one study researchers found that significantly more mosquitoes landed on study participants after drinking a 12-ounce beer than before. The scientists figured that it was due to increased ethanol content in sweat and skin temperature from consuming the brew, but they were unable to find the exact correlation, just that it happened.
Do mosquitoes love you? Have you found good ways to keep them away?
