We all know that many diseases are spread by mosquitoes, Malaria and dengue fever are some of these. Have you ever noticed that if a group of people are together, mosquitoes will attack one of them?
Do you know why this happens to certain people? A prominent neurobiologist and mosquito researcher, explains the answer very clearly. Recently, a study shows that mosquitoes do not pick and bite some people for nothing and that they have their own reasons behind it.
For this purpose, researchers conducted a study involving more than sixty people. Nylon stockings were worn on all of their hands. After six hours, these stockings were cut into pieces and placed in containers filled with mosquitoes. Samples from the two different people were placed together in container. Through this experiment, they simply found out how much body odor attracts mosquitoes.
That shows mosquitoes are first attracted by the smell of some people’s body. This smell is caused by the decomposition of bacteria in the body which may not be detectable by us. At the same time, mosquitoes can easily identify it and everyone’s smell is different. Mosquitoes are more likely to reach people with a higher concentration of carboxylic acid in the topmost layer of the skin.
The carbon dioxide that we exhale is used by mosquitoes to identify possible blood sources. Apart from this, body odor, certain blood types and carboxylic acid all add to their attraction. The study also points out that ‘O’ blood groups are mostly attractive to mosquitoes.
