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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) by Snotnose on Sunday May 10 2015, @08:44PM
Same here. When I was a kid my mom was a mosquito magnet, while I was untouched. Now that I'm an old fart I'm the magnet.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2015, @09:01PM
Is there anything different about old people's and young people's skin? It's a total mystery. I can't thing of any possible thing - so it must be the diet. Incidentally, I'm a diet fetishist blah protein blah body fat blah large penis blah muscles blah blah blah.