Why Mosquitoes Bite Some People More Than Others According to Science

Some people just seem to be mosquito magnets. In one scientific study, 20% of the people ended up with 95% of the mosquito bites. So, if you've ever thought mosquitoes had it out for you specifically, you might be right. And now, we know why. Hi, I'm Cameron, and this is Minute Itch. There's this idea that mosquitoes are attracted to people based on their blood type, but the actual evidence for that is weak at best. Instead, there's really good recent research showing that mosquitoes, female mosquitoes specifically, since males don't drink blood, rely on four main signals to track down their targets. And as far as we know, none of them are your blood type. The first is carbon dioxide, which, of course, animals exhale with

every breath. Mosquitoes can sense CO2 coming from as far as 30 m away, triggering them to make a bee line, or a mosquito line, really, toward a potential meal. And from there, it's a matter of vision. Certain mosquitoes' visual systems are tuned to the specific wavelengths common to human skin colors. And once they get close, you know, within a meter or so, they rely on body heat to home in on their tasty target. But, all humans breathe and are human-colored and warm. So, CO2, color, and heat can't really explain why some people get bitten more than others. I mean, if you're breathing a little faster, or your temperature is a little higher than everyone around you, like if

you've been exercising, you might be a slightly more attractive target. But, a fourth signal is what really seems to separate mosquito magnets from occasional blood donors. And it's the way you smell. Not like to other people, it's the way you smell to a mosquito. You see, everyone's skin harbors a slightly different blend of bacteria, and each type of bacteria produces a slightly different set of chemicals, some of which apparently smell irresistible to mosquitoes. One study found that mosquitoes were 100 times more attracted to the scent of people whose skin produce lots of carboxylic acid than to the scent of people whose skin doesn't produce that much. And it turns out that your particular combination of skin bacteria is mostly

governed by your genes. That's why identical twins, who have the same genes, are way more likely to have the same mosquito magnet status than non-identical twins who only share half of their genes. And since you can't change your genes, you're more or less stuck with how attractive mosquitoes find you. Except that there's one weird way you could become a mosquito magnet, even if you aren't one now, and it's by getting bitten by a mosquito. Which sounds like I'm messing with causality, but hear me out. Certain mosquito-borne viruses, like Zika and dengue fever, can actually affect the blend of bacteria living on their host's skin, boosting the types that pump out those attractive chemicals and bringing in more

mosquitoes to help the viruses jump into a new host. And that really bites.