Scientists Are Figuring Out Why Mosquitoes Love You So Much

Southern summers have everything—hot days perfect for wiling away the hours at the lake or the beach, warm nights designed for kicking back on the front porch. Southern summers have one other thing, too: mosquitoes, and lots of them. 

Here’s a fun fact about the little bloodsuckers: Mosquitoes are humans’ most lethal predators. That’s according to the Washington Post that just released an article about the tiny monsters that carry diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, and dengue fever that kill more than half a million people each year. The rest of us just get incredibly itchy bites and a burning desire to wearmosquito net hats. 

The funny thing about these swattable predators is that they don’t seem to bother everyone. There’s always one person at the barbecue who gets the worst of it, winding up polka dotted and scratching, while others walk away with just a bite or two. Now, a new study is looking into why mosquitoes tend to gravitate towards certain folks.

Scientists thought that mosquitoes used their eyes and their ability to sense body heat and carbon dioxide to target their prey (that’s you!). 

According to the new study, published in the scientific journal Current Biology, now, they have determined that heat and carbon dioxide most likely aren’t enough to attract the lil buggers. What really attracts mosquitoes is heat, carbon dioxide, and certain chemicals found in human body odor and breath. According to the Washington Post, the scientists found in their testing that mosquitoes really disliked one individual with a “signature scent [that] included an unusually low amount of carboxylic acids and high eucalyptols, a substance found in many plants, raising the possibility that diet may play a role.” 

Next up, scientists are going to try to determine the exact mixture that mosquitoes find most attractive and delicious. The hope is that their experiments may lead to the development of new mosquito repellents, perhaps by altering or masking the way our skin smells. To that point, as the Post notes, a professor at Virginia Tech recently tested four commonly used soaps and found that mosquitoes seem to dislike coconut oil and particularly the Native coconut and vanilla body wash.

While the world waits for a new way to keep the little bloodsuckers away, remember that some plants can help repel them. 

Good luck and happy summer!