Causes why mosquitoes bite some people more than others

For a few days, and as a result of the intense rain that has taken place in recent times, a mosquito invasion has been recorded in the city of Buenos Aires and in several cities of the Conurbano, which is keeping the citizens alert.

One question that always comes to mind on this topic is why some people itch more than others, even if they live in the same environment.

The answer to that question logically finds its arguments in science: blood type, metabolism, exercise, color of clothing and even beer consumption they can function as factors that more strongly attract these insects.

The truth is, at an outdoor gathering on a summer night of ten attendees, two will get stung far more than the rest. And it won’t be because they forgot to apply repellent.

According to the magazine’s portal Smithsonian of the United States, It is estimated that 20% of people are especially “tasty” for mosquitoes. And while scientists still have no cure for these nasty bites other than preventing them with repellent, there are a number of ideas as to why some mortals are more likely to suffer from them than others.

Mosquitoes depend on carbon dioxide to find their hosts and we all expel this part and leave certain “tracks” that mosquitoes follow to find us and eventually fulfill what they intended to do: bite us.

Joop van Loon, entomologist at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, explained Live Science that insects orient themselves on these pulses of carbon dioxide and fly until they perceive higher concentrations. He stressed that they can find possible targets “up to 50 meters away ”.

For his part, the doctor Nicolás Schweigmann, scientist from the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and independent researcher from Conicet, explained to Infobae that “there are three things that attract females to seek blood, and that is what they need to lay eggs lactic acid, carbon dioxide and heat ”.

The specialist explained that “These insects locate smells, have thermal detectors to recognize volatiles and also to sense temperature.”

One of the main ways mosquitoes locate their “targets” is through the carbon dioxide they release into their breath, using an organ called a maxillary probe. As a result, People who simply exhale more gas over time – usually older adults – have been found to attract more mosquitoes than others

“Someone who has a higher body temperature, sweats more, gasps more and will be stung more than someone with a lower body temperature, or someone who has just taken a bath and has a cool body”, Schweigmann score.

In addition, mosquitoes find victims at a distance closer smell lactic acid, uric acid, ammonia and other substances expelled by sweat, and are also attracted to people with higher body temperatures.

In that sense, because exercise increases the build-up of lactic acid and heat in the body, someone who is, or has just trained, is likely to “stand out” above the rest against insects. The same impact is caused by genetic factors that affect the amount of uric acid and other substances naturally emitted by each individual.

Beer, pregnancy and color of clothes

A recent study has shown that a single bottle of beer can make humans more attractive to insects. But while the researchers suspected that this was because drinking increases the amount of ethanol secreted in sweat, or because it increases body temperature, none of these factors were correlated with mosquito landing. his affinity with drinkers is still somewhat mysterious.

For Schweigmann, the cause – effect is explained by the presence of yeast in that drink, component that emits carbon dioxide, which would be explained by the mosquito’s predilection for this gas.

Several studies have also found this pregnant women attract about twice as many mosquito bites as others, probably due to the unfortunate confluence of two reasons: exhale about 21% more carbon dioxide, to which the specialist consulted added that “women in gestation have a higher average temperature than others, because of its greater body mass ”.

And about the clothes colorAs absurd as it may sound, mosquitoes are known to use sight (along with smell) to locate people, so By using colors that stand out (black, dark blue or red), the insect can be found more easily.

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