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Science

Some People Really Are Mosquito Magnets, Study Finds (theguardian.com) 50

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
A new study finds that some people really are "mosquito magnets" and it probably has to do with the way they smell. From a report: The researchers found that people who are most attractive to mosquitoes produce a lot of certain chemicals on their skin that are tied to smell. And bad news for mosquito magnets: they stay loyal to their favorites over time. "If you have high levels of this stuff on your skin, you're going to be the one at the picnic getting all the bites," said study author Leslie Vosshall, a neurobiologist at Rockefeller University in New York. There is folklore about who gets bitten more, but many claims are not backed up with strong evidence, said Vosshall.

The researchers designed an experiment pitting people's scents against each other, explained study author Maria Elena De Obaldia. Their findings were published Tuesday in the journal Cell. They asked 64 volunteers from the university and nearby to wear nylon stockings around their forearms to pick up their skin smells. The stockings were put in separate traps at the end of a long tube, then dozens of mosquitos were released. "They would basically swarm to the most attractive subjects," De Obaldia said. "It became very obvious right away." Scientists held a round-robin tournament and ended up with a striking gap: the biggest mosquito magnet was around 100 times more attractive to the mosquitoes than the last place finisher.
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Some People Really Are Mosquito Magnets, Study Finds More

Some People Really Are Mosquito Magnets, Study Finds

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  • Leverage it (Score:5, Informative)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Friday October 21, 2022 @05:25PM (#62986971) Journal

    If they can isolate and recreate the chemicals, then someone can manufacture a nice sticky trap.

    • Re:Leverage it (Score:4, Funny)

      by jwhyche ( 6192 ) on Friday October 21, 2022 @05:30PM (#62986981) Homepage

      My daughter is one of them. I can stroll through a swamp and they will not touch me. If she goes out, they will try to carry her off.

      • Re: Leverage it (Score:4, Funny)

        by Anonymouse Cowtard ( 6211666 ) on Friday October 21, 2022 @05:36PM (#62987001) Homepage

        they will try to carry her off

        Nevermind the repellent. Maybe you should try feeding her more?

      • Re:Leverage it (Score:4, Funny)

        by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Friday October 21, 2022 @06:03PM (#62987077) Journal

        Same with my Mom. She's baffled about why she gets gazillion bites and the people around her get zilch. I told her "try changing religions" and she gave me the mother of all stink-eyes. I've heard her rant about mosquito choice more 100 times, more often than I rant about there not being a state-ful GUI markup standard, making us have to use shitty Dom/JS/CSS. Wait, what was the topic?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Arethan ( 223197 )

          Something about mosquitos being attracted toward... or away from... covid vaccinations... or carriers... or your mom.

          Hey look, a Shetland pony! Wait, that's impossible, those are all being hoarded upon and island fortress and they just cut comms!

      • Used to happen to me when we’d go on field trips or whatnot to the Everglades—the world’s largest swamp. My classmates or family would all comment how the mosquitoes weren’t out that day while I’d be getting eaten alive.

        • Used to happen to me when we’d go on field trips or whatnot

          Mosquitoes loved me when I was a kid, but as an adult, they mostly leave me alone.

          My spouse will get a dozen bites while I get zero.

          I eat low salt, low sugar, low carb, spicy food and am 99% vegetarian. I don't know if any of that makes a difference.

          I love garlic, but so does my spouse, and I have read the theory that garlic repels mosquitoes has been debunked.

      • I was one for 40 years up north. I would get covered in raised welts while others weren't bitten at all. I moved to Florida 8 years ago and haven't been bitten since. They're here. They just don't bother me. What's the science behind that?

    • I have three of those mosquito trap lights, they have a bulb and a small fan. They work to some extent but I still get bit during those biting hours of the day without Deet. We had record rain here in Texas in August and surprise, a new larger mosquito started popping up because its eggs can live for years in flood plains. It doesn't carry any of the diseases but it bites like hell.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      a nice sticky trap

      Or bait for a bug zapper. Can't I at least get a little enjoyment from their demise?

  • Since I've been eating low carb (sometimes keto), I've noticed a remarkable decrease in mosquito bites, and I live in swampy-air south Texas, a place with the precipitation of a desert and the humidity of a rainforest. There have still been times they tear me up, but more often than not I'm the person in the crowd who's being left alone by the little winged vampiresses. What gives?

  • This has been known for years, there are different attractants and combinations of factors that make some people more attractive to mosquitos.
    Why somebody is still studying this seems a little overkill. There's already studies about olfactory organs in mosquitos, so yes they can sense things by smell. [nih.gov] We really need effective methods of control or eradication, especially in areas where the various diseases they carry are prevalent. I mean fogging whole regions and setting up traps looking for them is a wast

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by danda ( 11343 )

      yes, by now one would think they would be analyzing each participants diet, genetics, chemicals in sweat, etc. And also attempt to alter the results over time, eg by modifying the diet.

      This "study" seems to just be confirming what most of us have known for decades. The interesting part is "why" and what can we do about it?

      • Ah, it would have been interesting to us chemistry geeks if researchers had taken the nylon stockings and analysed the volatile compounds using headspace purge-and-trap (or even SPME) GC/MS! That's a standard technique.
        • Don't forget to study the mosquitoes local preferences as well.

          When I lived in the North East US I was a magnet. In the North West they leave me alone. I guess my confrontational upbringing is too much for the laid back bugs of the West.

          • When I lived in the North East US I was a magnet. In the North West they leave me alone.

            Did you change your diet when you moved? Or your soap or laundry detergent?

            • Not intentionally. I eat the same kind of stuff as I did in the past, and I've always preferred unscented detergents/soaps.

      • Re:I think this has been proven again and again (Score:4, Informative)

        by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Friday October 21, 2022 @06:31PM (#62987133)
        Before you do the study that you suggest it's first necessary to show that there is some difference. Otherwise you're potentially wasting a lot of time doing far more work for no actual purpose. Sometimes what we've all known for ages turns out to be true (and it's good that we've confirmed it) but there are plenty of times it's actually a false belief that only seemed true due to selection bias or any number of other things.

        I think a more interesting question to answers first is whether the mosquitos are more attracted to some smells or more repelled by others. Not appearing to be an attractive snack would be helpful, but having a chemical compound to drive mosquitoes away might be more useful if the reasons turn out to be genetic or something largely beyond our control.

    • We really need effective methods of control or eradication, especially in areas where the various diseases they carry are prevalent. I mean fogging whole regions and setting up traps looking for them is a waste of time. Eradicate the mofos!

      Having lived most of my life in Winnipeg, where mosquitoes are our official provincial bird, I've watch the control process adapt over time. When I was young, fogging with Malathion was the predominant method. It did not work well, was bad for other insect species, and was basically accepted as a "we have to do something" solution. Over the last couple decades fogging has become rare, and most of the budget is now dedicated to larvaciding (with Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti)) as many sources of

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Eradicate the mofos!

      But then what will some birds, bats, fish, etc. feed on?

      Perhaps the solution is to encourage a bunch of bats to move on to your property.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Perhaps the solution is to encourage a bunch of bats to move on to your property.

        Or spiders. Spiders at least will generally stay on your property and are not as mobile as bats.

        Plus, spiders generally get rid of the other irritating insects - mosquitos, flies, wasps, hornets, etc.

      • But then what will some birds, bats, fish, etc. feed on?

        In some places, mosquitoes are an invasive species. Eradicating them will have no negative effect on native species and perhaps even help since the animals that prey on mosquitoes are often other invasive species. Hawaii has no native mosquitoes. The native mosquitoes of New Zealand prey on birds, not mammals.

        In other places, the most aggressive mosquitoes are invasive, even though there are also native mosquitoes. For instance, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries yellow fever, dengue fever, and zika

    • As far as I know the 100x difference between individuals is new info. That's why it's good to continue to study these things.

  • Ticks. Bloodsuckers. Leeches. Vampires. Mosquitoes.

  • All parasites are attracted to the weak. These same people will also be targets or fleas. This can also be brought on by serious illnesses in previously healthy and repellent individuals.

  • Not to throw shade on the study... it's good to have a full fledged scientific study to give details but it's like saying study confirms sun there is a sun rising every day. It has been a known thing like forever

    • A lot of things we think we "know" or are "common sense" turn out to be false. Eggs are good for you, or bad for you. Coffee is good for you, or bad for you. People need 8 hours of sleep. There are lots of such claims that turn out to be false upon closer examination.

      • Also, the study went much further than merely showing the effect exists.

        The researchers showed that the odor originates on the skin (and not, say, the breath or clothing) and can be separated from the source while remaining effective.

        The next step is to identify and isolate the specific chemical(s) causing the attraction.

    • Well then don't pick on the study, pick on the headline. Sometimes we're confident there's an effect, but we're not sure the magnitude, or how it compares to other phenomenon.

  • I am definitely one (Score:3)

    by jmccue ( 834797 ) on Friday October 21, 2022 @06:41PM (#62987159) Homepage
    I am definitely one. When camping, we all would be sitting by the fire and mosquitoes would be all around me, leaving others alone.
  • My uncle swears its based on blood type. He is a mosquito magnet. Rest of the family is not.

    • Maybe your uncle should remove the medic alert bracelet the mosquitos are checking to determine his blood type.

      If mosquitos can determine blood type without sampling someone's blood, there's some science we should be looking into.

      • Well, presumably mosquitos can detect something different between individuals that we as yet are unable to explain, and because sweat is salt water that comes from blood plasma, and carries a few other trace ingredients, it is not entirely outside the realm of possibility that something in sweat gives an indicator about the blood type, or in the case of the mosquito, flavor.
        It is an interesting theory anyways.

  • I've seen speculation in the past that diet affected this.

    So did they share something in common or did they lack something in common?

    • Diet affects the chemicals on the skin. But in the past studies, diet didn't come anywhere near a 100x effect, so while it might contribute, the big difference seems to be individual genetic or other environmental differences.

  • The only things that depend on mosquitoes as their primary food source are only interesting to us because they eat mosquitoes (and that group literally only includes a few insects.) Let's just figure out how to eradicate them. Their influence is all negative.

  • Investigators interviewed 6x10^23 mosquitoes, and they all preferred sucking Bill to sucking Karen.

  • Class. Interesting research and even more interesting that someone came up with the idea of such a study. very original in my opinion. I can't do research without the help of brill assignment [brillassignment.co.uk] and it makes me sad. I think It's so great to learn something new and generate ideas for new and interesting research.

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