Why Are Some People So Attractive to Mosquitoes? Scientists Say CO2 Exhalation, Body Heat, Odor Play a Role

Scientific research recently showed that fatty acids that emanate from the skin might develop a heady perfume that cannot be resisted by mosquitoes.

As a SciTechDaily report said, it can be impossible to hide from a female mosquito; she will hunt down any member of the human species by tracking CO2 exhalations, body heat, as well as body odor.

Nonetheless, some humans are unique "mosquito magnets" getting more than people's fair share of bites.

There are a lot of popular theories for the reason one might be preferred snack, which includes blood type, garlic or banana consumption, blood sugar level, being a child, and being a woman.

Irresistible to Mosquitoes

There are little credible data to back most of the theories, according to Leslie Vosshall, head of Rockefeller University's Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior.

This is the reason Vossnall, together with Maria Elena De Obaldia, an ex-postdoc in her lab, set out to examine the leading theory to explain varying mosquito appeal-individual odor variations that are connected to skin microbiota.

Through an investigation, they recently showed that fatty acids that emanate from the skin may create a potent perfume, irresistible to mosquitoes. The results of the study are published in the Cell journal.

There's a strong link between having large amounts of these fatty acids on the skin and being a mosquito magnet, Vosshall said.

Olfactometry Assay Used

In this three-year-research, 18 study participants were asked to wear nylon stockings over their forearms for six hours each day.

Such a process was repeated on multiple days. Over the next few years, the researchers tested the nylons against each other in all possible pairings through a round-robin style "tournament."

The team employed a two-choice olfactometer assay built by De Obaldia, consisting of a plexiglass changer split into two tubes, each ending in a box holding a stocking.

They placed mosquitoes, specifically AedesAegypti species, as the primary vector species for viruses like dengue fever, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever, in the main chamber and observed as the insects flew down the tubes towards single nylon or the other.

By far, the most attractive target for Aedes aegypti was Subject 33, who was four times more alluring to the mosquitoes than the next most-attractive study participant, and an incredible 100 times more appealing than the least attractive one called Subject 19.

As explained in a similar OBC Tech report, some subjects were in the study for several years, and the team saw that if they were a mosquito magnet, they stayed a mosquito magnet.

Human-Produced Odors

Humans are producing mainly two types of odors that mosquitoes can detect with two different sets of odor receptors-the IR and Orco receptors.

To find out if they could engineer mosquitoes that cannot spot humans, the study investigators developed mutants that were missing one or both receptors.

As a result, Orco mutants stayed attracted to humans are were able to distinguish between low attractions and mosquito magnets, while IR mutants lost their attraction to humans to a varying degree, but they kept the ability to find humans.

A report about the mosquito magnets is shown on ThePrint's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Mosquitoes in Science Times.