Mosquitoes Bite Some People More Than Others

Image by Alvesgaspar via Wikimedia Commons

Mosquitoes prefer to bite some people more than others because of how we smell, suggests a paper by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The fascinating study investigated the heritability of attractiveness to mosquitoes by evaluating the response of mosquitoes to odours from the hands of identical and non-identical twins.

It’s in the Genes

Research revealed that an underlying genetic component was detectable by mosquitoes through sense of smell. If scientists can identify the genes involved, they can determine how much at risk a certain population is for diseases like Malaria, and they may even be able to develop a drug that causes your body to produce a natural repellant.

Dr. James Logan discusses the study in the video below.

As someone who spends half his summer basting in a protective marinade of sunblock and DEET-based repellant, I look forward to the clinical trials.