Avoiding bites: How summer beer boosts mosquito attraction
12 June 2024 11:27
The mosquito season is in full swing, and at the end of June and beginning of July, they will be most numerous. Do you feel that they bite you more often than others? It could be because of a beverage we usually enjoy during the summer.
Mosquitoes are small insects from the order Diptera. There are as many as 3,500 species worldwide, varying in appearance and size. Males feed on flower nectar, while females feed on the blood of mammals and birds.
What attracts mosquitoes? They rely on their sense of smell. They love the scent of carbon dioxide, lactic acid, sweat, and the beverage accompanying many summer parties.
Avoid this drink. It attracts mosquitoes like a magnet
The latest research on chip.de found that insects love blood containing... alcohol, specifically beer. The experiment involved 12 men aged 20-58, a 24-year-old woman, and a 30-year-old man designated as the "control person".
During the study, factors such as body temperature, sweat secretion, and alcohol in the blood were considered. After the initial analysis, participants were asked to drink a pint of beer with 5.5% ethanol content. It turned out that mosquitoes were more likely to land on people who drank beer than on those who abstained from the drink. The conclusion is clear — if you want to avoid bites, avoid alcohol.
Scientists have no doubts. Mosquitoes prefer women
Female mosquitoes carefully select their victims. During the search, they primarily rely on smell. Some aromas repel them, while others attract them. The insects can accurately detect increased carbon dioxide, sweat, and lactic acid levels. For this reason, they most often attack children, athletes, pregnant women, and those during ovulation.
"The fairer sex is more appreciated by female mosquitoes. Clothing choices also matter: darker clothing heats up faster in the sun, and people dressed this way are detected more quickly by female mosquitoes. Even slight differences in body temperature — something almost undetectable to us — are quickly noticed by mosquitoes," explained Professor Piotr Tryjanowski, a zoologist from the University of Life Sciences in Poznan, in an interview with the Polish Press Agency.
The expert added that blood type significantly influences insect attacks. Female mosquitoes prefer individuals with blood type O and those with a high level of carbon dioxide in the blood, which increases, among other things, during exercise.
