There are many reasons why mosquitoes prefer the blood of certain people. Researchers from Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands identified two factors that increase our attractiveness to these insects: alcohol and recent sexual activity.
In the Mosquito Magnet Trial, the team used an unusual approach to study mosquito behavior.
The Most Dangerous Creatures on Earth
Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on the planet; they transmit dangerous diseases such as dengue fever, West Nile virus, Zika virus, and malaria. Each year, these bloodsuckers cause approximately 2.7 million deaths, while millions more suffer severe symptoms from mosquito-borne pathogens.
Controlling mosquito populations and the diseases they spread is vital for public health. Equally important is understanding who tends to be the most frequent targets for these pests.
Entomologists have long known that one of the main cues mosquitoes use to find hosts is the carbon dioxide people exhale. Mosquitoes use other sensory signals too, and smell is especially important.
What Did the New Study Reveal?
A team led by biologist Felix Hall wanted to find which biological and sensory factors most trigger mosquitoes. Rather than invite volunteers into a lab, they went to a place where people’s bodies are already revved up: the Lowlands music festival, about 68 kilometers east of Amsterdam, as reported by Popular Science.
During the music festival, Hall and his colleagues set up a temporary lab inside interconnected shipping containers. The team asked festival-goers to fill out a questionnaire about their hygiene, diet, and lifestyle during the event.
About 500 festivalgoers agreed to answer the questionnaire and to put their arms into a special box filled with hungry mosquitoes. The device let mosquitoes sense a person’s scent but prevented them from reaching the skin with their proboscises, so no one was bitten. Biologists recorded how many mosquitoes were attracted to each arm and compared that to how many went to a sugar feeder on the opposite side of the box. From the data, they identified which people the insects preferred.
It turned out that mosquitoes were particularly attracted to people who were enjoying themselves. Specifically, people who had drunk alcohol and had sex the night before the experiment were about 1.35 times more appealing to the mosquitoes than people who hadn’t. Mosquitoes were also less likely to respond to an arm that had recently been washed or had sunscreen applied.
The Mosquito Magnet Trial is the largest study of its kind, but the biologists acknowledged the experiment took place under “loosely controlled conditions” and that many participants were festivalgoers.
Regardless, the researchers concluded: “Mosquitoes have a weakness for hedonists.”
Photo: Openverse
