Why are some people mosquito magnets?

Ever felt like mosquitoes bite you while ignoring everyone else? Scientists are now making progress in deciphering the complex chemical cocktail that makes particular people more enticing to these disease-spreading bloodsuckers. “It’s not a misconception — mosquitoes are attracted to some people more than others,” Frederic Simard of France’s Institute of Research for Development told AFP. “But we are not all magnets all the time,” the medical entomologist added. A range of sensory cues can cause mosquitoes to pick one human over another — mainly the smell and heat our bodies give off, and the carbon dioxide we exhale. Female mosquitoes — which are the only ones that bite — detect these signals with finely-tuned receptors, then choose their target accordingly. A photograph taken on June 29, 2023 shows Asian Tiger mosquitoes in a petri dish at the Zagreb-based teaching institute for public health in Zagreb. —AFP “We have known for over 100 years that mosquitoes are attracted by the carbon dioxide that we exhale — this is the first signal that triggers their behaviour” when they are dozens of metres away, Swedish scientist Rickard Ignell told AFP. Within around 10 metres, “mosquitoes will start detecting our odour, and in combination with carbon dioxide,” this attracts them even more, said the senior author of a recent study on the subject. As they get closer, body temperature and humidity make particular humans even more enticing. Blood type doesn’t matter However, some popular theories on this subject do not hold water. The idea that mosquitoes prefer particular blood types “has no scientific basis,” Simard said. “There have been some studies, but only involving very few people,” he said. “Nor is it related to skin, eye or hair colour,” he added. Odour, on the other hand, matters greatly. “A soup of molecules produced by our microbiota is more — or less — appealing to mosquitoes,” Simard explained. Humans release between 300 and 1,000 different odorous compounds, res