Are you a mosquito magnet? This might explain why

Some people attract more mosquitoes than others. Or so they say. But the researchers found that this statement may have some merit, and that it’s possible mosquitoes have certain preferences in the people they bite.

While theories suggest that blood type, clothing and bacteria play a role in mosquitoes’ decision to bite humans, a new study suggests smell has something to do with it.

Photo by Samantha Gades via Unsplash

The study, published in the journal Cell, suggests that mosquitoes’ preference is based on a person’s smell. Unfortunately, it can be something people are born with and therefore something they cannot change or influence over the course of their lives.

The study was conducted over a three-year period and included eight participants who wore nylon stockings over their arms for six days. The researchers would then take those stockings and expose them to mosquitoes to see which stocking they would be naturally attracted to.

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The researchers found that one of the participants in particular was four times more attractive to mosquitoes than the second-place participant. They were also 100 times more attractive than the least attractive participant.

In a statement from Rockefeller University, the study’s lead author, Leslie Vosshall, wrote about carboxylic acid, an element that the mosquito-loved subjects produced in greater quantities. “There’s a very, very strong association between having large amounts of these fatty acids on the skin and being a mosquito magnet,” she said.

The researchers said they wanted to see if mosquitoes were attracted to different people, but that wasn’t the case. The results showed that mosquito magnets are likely to stay that way throughout their lives and are therefore more susceptible to various diseases.

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“Some subjects participated in the study for several years, and we saw that if they were a mosquito magnet, they remained a mosquito magnet,” said Maria Elena De Obaldia, another author of the study. “A lot of things about the person or their behavior could have changed in that time, but this was a very stable trait of the person.”

Still, the research could prove useful in the future, especially when it comes to making effective mosquito repellents.