Why do mosquitos attack some folks and ignore others? Science has an answer:
The researchers analyzed the subjects' scent profiles to see what might account for this vast difference. They found a pattern: the most attractive subjects tended to produce greater levels of carboxylic acids from their skin while the least attractive subjects produced much less.
Carboxylic acids are commonplace organic compounds. Humans produce them in our sebum, which is the oily layer that coats our skin; there, the acids help to keep our skin moisturized and protected, Vosshall says. Humans release carboxylic acids at much higher levels than most animals, De Obaldia adds, though the amount varies from person to person. The new study had too few participants to say what personal characteristics make someone more likely to produce high levels of carboxylic acids—and there's no easy way to test your own skin's carboxylic acid levels outside of the laboratory, Vosshall says. (She muses, however, that sending people skin swabs in the mail could make for an interesting citizen science project in the future.)
But we do know that skin maintains a relatively constant level of carboxylic acids over time. This, in turn, leads to a consistent odor profile. (Mosquitoes could also be attracted to skin bacteria digesting the carboxylic acids we produce, Vosshall suggests.) When Vosshall and De Obaldia ran their tournament multiple times several months apart, they found that people's attractiveness rankings remained largely the same. Any personal factors that may have changed over those months—from what each subject ate to the kind of soap they used—didn't seem to make a difference.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday October 21 2022, @01:35PM (1 child)
That some people just tasted better.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Interesting) by mcgrew on Saturday October 22 2022, @02:17PM
They're not biting you for food, their biting you is part of their sex life. There's a component in mammal blood that mosquitoes need to reproduce. Only the females bite.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2022, @06:20PM
I am going to purchase some carboxylic acid to discreetly spray on others around me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2022, @07:52PM
Maybe it's just that they're a-holes.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Friday October 21 2022, @08:49PM
I do know that they just *love* me. The bites also swell and itch too. Definitely a major reason why I tend to stay indoors.
We're in drought conditions here in MN, which also cuts down on the skeeter populations, which is nice.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 1) by Peristaltic on Friday October 21 2022, @11:40PM (1 child)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Saturday October 22 2022, @05:31PM
I had one of those in the early 00s they would encrust with a layer of dead bugs in a couple days, but the world isn't running out of mosquitos, so net effect was more of a reduction. "free/cheap" razor blade holder and very expensive razors seems to be their business model. Certainly killed a lot of mosquitos but at what cost?
I've also tried the dynatrap type thing and it mostly kills the moths that would normally devastate my garden, so despite not catching many mosquitos the light/fan style trap worked pretty well.
If you talk to the rednecks they'll tell you bullshite so they can laugh at city slickers (go drink a quart of prune juice, that'll keep them away, he he he) but if you look at what they as rednecks actually do when they're outside, nothing keeps mosquitos away quite as well as a $19 fan pointed at you, which also keeps you cool. So you'll see a picnic table with four people and four box fans pointing at them and even on a humid warm night they don't get bit. Mosquitos, interestingly, are not exactly the jet-like hawks of bloodsuckers so they give up in a wind much over 10 or 20 MPH, so a simple electric fan protects one human being pretty well.
I could do rural life without air conditioning, but I personally can't even do suburban life without electric fan.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday October 22 2022, @05:24PM
Yeah about that, its been awhile since I took biochem but aren't triglycerides a pile of carboxolic acids on a backbone chain of... some hydrocarbon probs glycerol like thingie? Ester bonds or something like that? Too lazy to look it up, I'm about 99% sure carboxolic acids are in the triglycerides regardless how unsure I am of whatever the backbone is.
Rumor has it that mosquitos are attracted to carb addicts and low-carb people get bit less, rumor as in social media bro-science gossip, not medical journal articles.
Certainly, my triglyceride blood tests implode downward on a low carb diet just like most people.
Given the above, not totally unrealistic that "serious" changes to diet like going from carb addiction to low carb would have an effect on mosquito bites.
I'm unaware of any scientific study of triglyceride level vs bug bite level.
The biggest problem is going to be factoring out lifestyle noise; certainly fat people sit on couch, thin people get out and do stuff, "obviously" thin people should get bit more not less, so even a reduction in predicted increase is a "decrease"