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My family has always debated this question: Do some people get bitten more by mosquitoes or do they just react more?

latchkey 4y ago
Both. Over time, you can develop a tolerance to the bites. I definitely had this happen while living in SE Asia for 4 years... when I first moved to Vietnam, I had bites all over, after a while, I stopped reacting to the bites almost entirely.
- wil421 4y ago
  Agreed, it’s both. They don’t really care for me if others are around. I’ve never had a visible reaction from a mosquito bite. I live in The South and they are around during the warmer months.
- quercusa 4y ago
  I also think it's both. I find that when I'm taking oral antihistamines, the reactions are much smaller (no surprise). But I realized that Cetirizine (Zyrtec) was having a negative effect on my sleep so I need to find something else.
  - GekkePrutser 4y ago
    Interesting. I have bad hayfever and I always sleep worse in the season. I always thought the blocked nose makes my apnea worse but perhaps it's not just that. Good to know, I'll look into it
sethammons 4y ago
My friend and his dad are completely ignored by mosquitoes. There can be hundreds of them and zero interest from the mosquitoes. Meanwhile, everyone else is getting ravaged.
yostrovs 4y ago
Supposedly there's an genetic link: https://www.23andme.com/topics/traits/mosquito-bite-frequency/ https://www.23andme.com/topics/traits/mosquito-bite-frequenc...
i67vw3 4y ago
True story If I am on table with 10 people and there are 2 mosquitoes, both of them will come and try repeatedly bite me. They will not go near the other 9 humans whatsoever (sniff them out).
- harrydehal 4y ago
  Some blood is sweeter than others. -Bram Stoker, or someone.
colechristensen 4y ago
Mosquitoes are attracted to several different signals that lead them to you, smells, heat, co2 and other simple chemicals. It stands to reason that different people put out different amounts of the various things that attract mosquitoes.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  I know mosquitoes are not supposed to be attracted to light. But I've had some cases where I left the window open at night with the lights on and my bedroom was swarming with them. Whereas with the lights off there are a few but not infested like that. So in my own experience light does seem to be a factor somehow
  - hackily 4y ago
    Could it be the heat from your light? What kind of bulb do you use? Out of curiosity, what are you doing with the light off? Just sitting in the dark?
    - GekkePrutser 4y ago
      In summer I live with minimal light, yes. I live in Spain so I need windows open and I don't have AC. But there's a lot of street light as I live in a big city, so I can do with that (it's fine as long as it's brighter outside). I also have some xiaomi battery-powered motion-activated night lights to move around. My screens and TV are adjusted to low brightness and dark mode through automation. It works out ok for me. I can basically do my normal activities with some exceptions. For example my Oculus quest tracking doesn't work. But I don't want to wear that in the summer heat anyway. I don't think it's heat as I only have LED lights. Also, mosquitoes are far from the only troublesome bugs here. But keeping the lights off really seems to help for them too.

Both. Over time, you can develop a tolerance to the bites. I definitely had this happen while living in SE Asia for 4 years... when I first moved to Vietnam, I had bites all over, after a while, I stopped reacting to the bites almost entirely.

wil421 4y ago
Agreed, it’s both. They don’t really care for me if others are around. I’ve never had a visible reaction from a mosquito bite. I live in The South and they are around during the warmer months.
quercusa 4y ago
I also think it's both. I find that when I'm taking oral antihistamines, the reactions are much smaller (no surprise). But I realized that Cetirizine (Zyrtec) was having a negative effect on my sleep so I need to find something else.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  Interesting. I have bad hayfever and I always sleep worse in the season. I always thought the blocked nose makes my apnea worse but perhaps it's not just that. Good to know, I'll look into it

sethammons 4y ago

My friend and his dad are completely ignored by mosquitoes. There can be hundreds of them and zero interest from the mosquitoes. Meanwhile, everyone else is getting ravaged.

yostrovs 4y ago

Supposedly there's an genetic link: https://www.23andme.com/topics/traits/mosquito-bite-frequency/ https://www.23andme.com/topics/traits/mosquito-bite-frequenc...

i67vw3 4y ago

True story If I am on table with 10 people and there are 2 mosquitoes, both of them will come and try repeatedly bite me. They will not go near the other 9 humans whatsoever (sniff them out).

harrydehal 4y ago
Some blood is sweeter than others. -Bram Stoker, or someone.

colechristensen 4y ago

Mosquitoes are attracted to several different signals that lead them to you, smells, heat, co2 and other simple chemicals. It stands to reason that different people put out different amounts of the various things that attract mosquitoes.

GekkePrutser 4y ago
I know mosquitoes are not supposed to be attracted to light. But I've had some cases where I left the window open at night with the lights on and my bedroom was swarming with them. Whereas with the lights off there are a few but not infested like that. So in my own experience light does seem to be a factor somehow
- hackily 4y ago
  Could it be the heat from your light? What kind of bulb do you use? Out of curiosity, what are you doing with the light off? Just sitting in the dark?
  - GekkePrutser 4y ago
    In summer I live with minimal light, yes. I live in Spain so I need windows open and I don't have AC. But there's a lot of street light as I live in a big city, so I can do with that (it's fine as long as it's brighter outside). I also have some xiaomi battery-powered motion-activated night lights to move around. My screens and TV are adjusted to low brightness and dark mode through automation. It works out ok for me. I can basically do my normal activities with some exceptions. For example my Oculus quest tracking doesn't work. But I don't want to wear that in the summer heat anyway. I don't think it's heat as I only have LED lights. Also, mosquitoes are far from the only troublesome bugs here. But keeping the lights off really seems to help for them too.