[FACT OR FAKE #27] Mosquitoes Prefer Some People's Blood Over Others

The short answer is yes. Mosquitoes do exhibit blood-sucking preferences, say the experts.

New research explains mosquitoes’ apparent selectivity. An estimated 20 percent of people are “especially delicious” to mosquitoes. They are bitten more often than others.

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But it's not dinner they're sucking out of you. Female mosquitoes -- males do not bite people -- need human blood to develop fertile eggs. And apparently, not just anyone's will do.

universityherald.com

A number of factors are at play. Chief among them is blood type. Research shows that they find certain blood types more appetizing than others,” according to an article in Smithsonian magazine.

webmd.com

Type O is at the top of the list. Additionally, about 85 percent of people secrete a chemical signal that indicates their blood type; these “secretors” are more prone to bites regardless of their blood type.

theconversation.com

One of the key ways mosquitoes locate their targets is by smelling the carbon dioxide emitted in their breath—they use an organ called a maxillary palp to do this, and can detect carbon dioxide from as far as 164 feet away.

smithsonianmag.com

As a result, people who simply exhale more of the gas over time—generally, larger people—have been shown to attract more mosquitoes than others.

huffingtonpost.com

This is one of the reasons why children get bit less often than adults, on the whole.

In addition to carbon dioxide, mosquitoes find victims at closer range by smelling the lactic acid, uric acid, ammonia and other substances expelled via their sweat, and are also attracted to people with higher body temperatures.

universityherald.com

Because strenuous exercise increases the buildup of lactic acid and heat in your body, it likely makes you stand out to the insects. Meanwhile, genetic factors influence the amount of uric acid and other substances naturally emitted by each person, making some people more easily found by mosquitos than others.

smithsonianmag.com

Moms-to-be get bitten about twice as often as women who aren’t pregnant, increasing their risk for bug-borne diseases, according to a study conducted in Gambia.

This is likely a result of the fact the unfortunate confluence of two factors: They exhale about 21 percent more carbon dioxide and are on average about 1.26 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than others.

smithsonianmag.com

This one might seem absurd, but mosquitoes use vision (along with scent) to locate humans, so wearing colors that stand out may make you easier to find.

smithsonianmag.com

In one study comparing the appeal of various hues to mosquitoes, the researchers reported the following results: black (most attractive); red (very attractive); grey and blue (neutral); khaki, green, light khaki, and yellow (less attractive).

Swigging just one bottle of beer can significantly boost your risk of being bitten, according to a study published in Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association.

webmd.com

No one has been able to pinpoint why drinking beer makes people more attractive to mosquitoes.

washingtonpost.com

Some have theorized that the elevation in body temperature and the amount of ethanol in sweat may play a role, but neither theory has panned out. Still, it appears that even a 12-ounce bottle is enough to do the trick.

Female mosquitoes are driven to bite you as they need a blood meal to complete their reproductive cycle and produce fertile eggs, which takes a huge boost of protein. To reduce the chances of being bitten, wash with an antibacterial soap to reduce the volume of mosquito-attracting bacteria on your skin.

Avoid the outdoors at dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are most active. Set up an outdoor fan to shoo bugs away. And wear long trousers and shirts if it's not too hot.

Experts also suggests spraying your clothing with repellent that contains DEET, a chemical that acts to confuse the mosquito's olfactory receptors.