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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: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 11 2015, @03:47AM
It has been observed that wearing scents increases the likelihood of being feasted upon. Using one soap decreases insect bites, using another increases the bites. Wearing most perfumes increases your misery in the wilderness.
A clean, natural scent has always been the first line of defense against mosquito bites. And, a pungent, days (weeks?) old body odor has always been an openly broadcast invitation for diners to home in on you.
I certainly hope that hygienic body scent was controlled for in this study. A search of the page for the word "Hygiene" yields one single result:
"Ethical approval for this study was granted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Observational / Interventions Research Ethics Committee (approval number A421)."
The sparse details in the article are less than encouraging.