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It’s not just popular imagination: mosquitoes bite some people more than others. We don't really understand why, but a recent paper in PLOS One suggests that genes could play a role in the attraction.
We’ve known for a while that smell is at least a partial explanation for why some people are mosquito fodder while others return from the outdoors unscathed. A number of different studies have found that differences in body odor are related to interest from mosquitoes. What we don’t properly understand is what causes those differences in smell.
A widespread myth is that certain foods can repel or attract mosquitoes, but there’s no clear explanation for how diet could change attraction levels, write the authors of the new study. What evidence we have seems to lean away from food as a factor. This makes sense: if mosquitoes use smell to find a suitable meal, they’d evolve to sniff out stable smells, not smells that change with every meal.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2015, @06:24PM
As I understand it, by differentiating between humans based on genetic differences, these mosquitoes are filthy goddamn racists. They need to target everybody equally.