4 ms·
Mosquitoes always seem to come exclusively to me instead of my wife. I would love to understand this "preference" but unfortunately the article doesn’t really e
by htk 2y ago
Mosquitoes always seem to come exclusively to me instead of my wife. I would love to understand this "preference" but unfortunately the article doesn’t really explain it.
- aeternum 2y agoDo you have o blood type?
- lolinder 2y agoIs there any reason to suppose that blood type plays a role? It's a big deal for blood transfusion but that doesn't automatically make it relevant to mosquito preferences, and TFA doesn't mention blood type.
- boomboomsubban 2y ago>Is there any reason to suppose that blood type plays a role? Yes. https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/41/4/796/885285 https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/41/4/796/885285 Hardly conclusive, but there is some reason to suspect it plays a role.
- scruple 2y agoO- here but I very, very rarely get bitten. My wife is A and gets it very badly.
- kergonath 2y agoI am skeptical. To figure out the blood type of someone, wouldn’t they need to bite anyway? There are more compelling studies showing effects of CO2 and smells.
- euroderf 2y agoO+ here and them pesky skeeters ab-so-lootly LUV me. Summer is antihistamine season.
- b0dhimind 2y agoO+ and they bite me a lot too...
- htk 2y agoO+. I didn't know blood type could be a factor, thank you for the tip, I'll look into this.
- markus_zhang 2y agoMe too. BTW I'm A so don't think it is the reason. I also heard that blood sugar plays a hand here, but could also be pseudoscience.
- animesh 2y agoJust one anecdote as a type 2 person: I cannot prove it scientifically yet, but I did notice that on bad diet days, I get bit more than otherwise.
- markus_zhang 2y agoI wish there is some study for that, hmmm. I usually keep the same (bad) diet every day so it's kinda hard to test.
- cortesoft 2y agoI always wonder, is it that some people don't get bitten or that some people don't react to getting bitten?
- kkylin 2y agoPossibly both. I've certainly observed mosquitos biting people who say they don't get bitten -- they just don't notice, which may not be a good thing.
- pests 2y agoThe latter for me absolutely. Mosquitoes have never left any kind of mark or bump or bite on my skin. I can sometimes feel them biting (injecting? whatever) and I smack/brush them away but that's the most nuisance they cause. I've always wondered why.
- grahamj 2y agoI think how much they're attracted to you and how much you react to bites are independent. My daughter and I can be in the same place outside for a while and she'll end up with many welts while I have nothing. I do catch them biting me sometimes but she just gets swarmed. I'm pretty sure as a kid I got a lot more bites. My kid's a teen so I wonder if hormones play a part.
- hetspookjee 2y agoDefinitely seems the case here that hormones play a part. When my wife was pregnant she got 100% of the bites. Now we’re having a son and the bites are even again
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- orionsbelt 2y agoI’ve literally seen them chase me and avoid others I am with. I also do react and get welts/itchy, but they 100% are also chasing me more than others.
- thelittleone 2y agoI spent some time in the Peruvian Amazon with local medicine families. In some groups they believe that when mosquitos buzz around the ears, some bodies automatically react by sending blood to the skin in preparation for an immune response (possibly a learned response from a past bite or perhaps inherited). A symptom of that response is goosebumps at the sound of mosquitos.
- anvil-on-my-toe 2y agoIt's either smell, body heat, or easy access to skin. Maybe you sweat more than your wife, or the compounds in your sweat are more attractive to mosquitos, or maybe her hygiene is better. The smelliest parts of people are the sweat glands and mouth. I pay extra care to my smell when archery hunting by keeping my teeth brushed and using wet wipes on sweaty areas. Eating an apple also helps neutralize mouth odor.
- 486sx33 2y agoBlood type also has an effect https://ourbloodinstitute.org/blood-matters/mosquitoes-blood-type/ https://ourbloodinstitute.org/blood-matters/mosquitoes-blood...