US experts think they’ve figured out why certain humans are mosquito magnets while the bloodsucking insects avoid others.
According to study that will be published in the academic journal Cell, it has been found that some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others, although this phenomena is not well understood.
The Rockefeller University, a postgraduate research institution in New York, conducted research that discovered carboxylic acids on the skin as a mosquito attractant.
Mosquitoes found individuals with much higher levels of the acids to be more seductive.
Even mutant mosquitoes lacking the scent receptors were still drawn to people with greater acidity levels in their skin.
According to the study, “this shows that mosquitoes with major olfactory abnormalities are nonetheless able to distinguish between different individuals.”
There is a wide range of attractiveness.
The researchers determined an “attraction score” based on how mosquitoes flocked to their subjects, finding the most attractive person for the mosquitoes scored four times higher than the second most.
Compared to the least attractive, their score was 100 times higher.
The researchers believe their findings provide more scientific reasoning for the phenomenon of mosquito attraction than existing theories based on blood type, or the consumption of B vitamins or garlic as a home repellent.
Uncertainties nevertheless persist.
The specific chemical mechanism that differentiates the attractiveness of people to mosquitoes is still unclear, the research notes, while the consistency of skin odour over time is also unknown, particularly “the markedly less intense skin odour that emanates from body sites commonly bitten by mosquitoes”.
The study may help in the creation of more powerful insect repellents.
Why do some people get more bites from mosquitoes than others?
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