Being outdoors in warm or humid weather and not hearing swatting and people complaining about mosquitos is quite rare. No matter whether you are wearing full sleeves or have a repellent coil burning somewhere, is it always you, who ends up with itchy mosquito bites? If your answer is yes, did you ever wondered why mosquitos are attracted to only you? Well, there may be a scientific reason for the mosquitos to behave this way.
Here are some of the reasons:
1. Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Humans breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. As per research titled, Detection and perception of generic host volatiles by mosquitoes: responses to CO2 constrains host-seeking behaviour, submitted to the Royal Society Publishing, different breeds of mosquitos respond to Carbon Dioxide emission differently. It revealed that even if there’s a minor fluctuation in the CO2, it alerts the host-seeking mosquito and attracts them to move toward that area.
2. Body Odour
Mosquitos are attracted to several compounds like lactic acid and ammonia present on the skin and sweat of a human which released specific odour that attracts these blood-feeding pests.
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3. Carboxylic Acids
The Guardian recently reported about research that found out that the presence of carboxylic acids on the skin of the attractive host keeps these insects loyal and makes the host their favourite. The higher the level of this acid, the more mosquitos you will attract.
In the experiment, 64 volunteers participated who were asked to wear nylon stockings around their forearms, which were later put in separate traps at the end of a long tube and released dozens of mosquitos. They found that the insects would swarm to the most attractive host. The attractive host was found to produce more carboxylic acid than the others.
To prevent the attention of the mosquitos, it is important to understand what skin odorants they are attracted to that will, later on, help with developing an effective repellant.
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