Do Mosquitoes Love You
Have you ever noticed that mosquitoes are not attracted to everybody? You might be gossiping with your friends in a park and you are the victim of attack by the swarm of mosquitoes . You struggle to keep them away from you while the other friends are untouched.
But why so ? - You might have heard when mosquitos run short of energy they need something sugary and sweet and if your blood has sugar they bite you . But it’s not so . Only female mosquitoes bite you. As a matter of fact female mosquitoes bite you because your blood has essential nutrients needed to produce eggs. Male mosquitoes are bad at locating humans and they don’t possess a special stylus to pierce human body
How do Mosquitoes Locate You - When they are hunting for their prey they pick up a number of signals from a nearby human body - Body heat , Body Odor , Carbon dioxide mainly. They can sense carbon dioxide exhaled by you from far away - even if you may be 50 to 100 feet away . Then when they come closer they sense your body odors e.g. lactic acid , Ammonia or any other smelling byproducts produced by bacteria living on your skin . These primary senses help them to locate you. Finally they come closer to you and land on your skin sensing heat released by your body. After landing on your body their taste sensors located in legs can pinpoint the exact point of bite . Once they bite you know how it tastes .
But the question arises why it's you , everyone breathes , everybody has some odors and everybody releases heat . Why only you get a bite and why not your friends around you ? It’s a complicated issue . There are more than 3000 species of mosquitoes and each has its own attracting agents to pinpoint its most suited target. .
Some say they depend on universal attractants to locate their prey . There are particular types of attractants which are combinations of compounds produced by everybody’s distinct odor which finally guide them to attack a particular body. But what makes that combination is not exactly known. .
It is generally thought that a mosquito’s particular choice depends on the quality and / or quality of attracting agents released by a particular person. There are many factors subscribing to it but it mainly depends on our genetics. Still it’s mainly felt that the three attractants - Body heat , Body Odor , Carbon dioxide play major roles in getting him / her bit by mosquitoes .
Six Reasons Why You Might be a Target -
1 . Body Size - larger the size of the body , the body exhales more carbon dioxide that can easily attract mosquitoes.
2.. How much you sweat - While we sweat we may not feel any odor in the beginning but the mosquitoes can smell it due to lactic acid and Ammonia present in it . Thus they get attracted easily. The more you sweat the more you attract them.
3. Body Temperature - Some mosquitoes sense body heat to locate its target. It’s thought that they land quite often on bodies with higher temperatures . Some people have even higher normal body temperature or some may have higher temperatures due to work outs or any other reason.
4 . Your Foods and drinks - Some scientists feel that what we eat and drink can also be an attractant for mosquitoes . What we eat or drink affects the kind of compounds/ sweat released on our skin . Some say consuming alcohol ( particularly beer ) and bananas might make one more attractive for mosquitoes.
5 . Pregnancy - It is said that pregnant women are more attractive to mosquitoes . This might be due to more carbon dioxide released by them ( 20% more ) and higher body temperature in pregnancy.
6 . Bacteria on our skin - Everybody sweats and bacteria feast on sweat and release odorous compounds. This varies from person to person and some mosquitoes are attracted towards some particular odor .
Bottom Line - Though all mosquito bites are not dangerous some may be dangerous that might cause filaria , malaria , dengue or other harmful/ dangerous diseases . So it’s better to take precautionary measures to avoid it .
