# Mosquito Attraction **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2001, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102 "2001-08-06T12:29:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![misterbuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@misterbuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterbuster)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/1 "2001-08-06T12:29:53Z")
The question: Why does every mosquito my girlfriend and I encounter bite her and ignore me? During the two years we have been together she has received hundreds of mosquito bites, I have received none. After vigorous research I’m only more confused. Here is what I have come up with on my own: Mosquitoes are attracted to: -Carbon Dioxide -Dark Colors -Some scented products and perfumes -Heat Mosquitoes are repelled by: -DEET Now the problems: -I smoke, releasing ungodly amounts of Carbon Dioxide. She does not. -I wear almost exclusively dark colors. She does not. -We frequently use the same body wash/shampoo. -I overheat easily. It seems I should be the one attracting all the mosquitoes! This has been a problem for her since long before we met, so I know I am not drawing all the mosquitoes that bite her. I also don’t attract mosquitoes when I am alone. I used to get mosquito bites as a child, but can’t recall any for the past few years. Could smoking have changed the way mosquitoes perceive me? Are there any avid smokers reading this that have mosquito problems? Is there a chance that her medication (Claritin) could be attracting them? This is driving me crazy. 🙂 I’m looking forward to your replies! ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/2 "2001-08-06T12:37:26Z")
I knew a French guy who claimed that he wasn’t allergic to mosquito bites, more specifically, that he didn’t have any reaction to the anti-cogaulant. Maybe the mosquitos just didn’t like French food. Anyway, I suppose its possible that the mosquitos are drawn in by all of the factors which you state, bite both of you, but you don’t really notice because you have lost your allergic reaction. Just a SWAG. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/3 "2001-08-06T12:51:40Z")
If you were bitten frequently enough, you might not notice the being bitten now. You wouldn’t notice an itch or a swelling. Your body would have enough resistance to prevent the itching/swelling/pain reaction from the skeeter. I knew a girl who was always covered in red, bumpy painful looking skeeter bites, and I think she just had a harder, longer reaction to each bite. I’ve seen documentaries about mosquitos (from the NJ Mosquito Control Commission), and some researchers get bit thousands of time a day, and barely notice. They made me itchy watching, but they never flinched in a swarm of mosquiotos. BTW - the USA is now home to an Asian (Tiger?) Mosquitos that don’t need stagnant water to lay eggs. Great. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/4 "2001-08-06T17:40:18Z")
Something similar happens in the Boscibo household. I smoke, Mr Boscibo (my SO) does not. We use the same bath products, eat the same foods, and I get chowed and he does not. Even when I go the extra step and apply insect repellant I still get more bites than him. I am like that girl Philster described…I get awful welts from bites. My SO is outdoors a lot and the mosquitoes don’t bother him at all. He says it’s because I scratch my bites, I can’t help it they drive me nuts. Maybe it’s a female thing? ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/5 "2001-08-06T18:09:08Z")
I have a dark complexion and I rarely get biten. When I occasionly do get bite I have a reaction for a short period of time, but that’s rare. I think it is the type of skin a person has. Fair skinned people draw mosquitoes and the mosquitos like what they find, they happen upon me and they move on unless very hunger. It almost gives me a complex, but do I really care what a mosquito thinks of me? ---
**Author:** ![misterbuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@misterbuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterbuster)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/6 "2001-08-06T18:14:02Z")
I’m an incredibly pale white-boy. 🙂 My girlfriend is chinese, and has a dark tan most of the summer. she’s the one that get’s bitten. so… thus far we’ve eliminated smoking and dark skin as ways to relieve mosquito bites… ---
**Author:** ![misterbuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@misterbuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterbuster)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/7 "2001-08-06T18:17:39Z")
Boscibo, Do you use any kind of lotion that your SO doesn’t? ---
**Author:** ![Carina42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Carina42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carina42)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/8 "2001-08-07T00:08:04Z")
FWIW…I used to smoke; don’t now. I am female & not very pale. Eat lots of garlic & use whatever bath products smell good. Grew up partly in the Middle East (bit lots.) NEVER get bothered by mosquitos…they land, they leave. Mr Carina43 is fairly pale, non smoker, tends towards dark clothing, (as do I)…gets bit to pieces. He is also a doctor & I posed this question to him. His response? “I don’t know.” Well. I hope that was helpful. 😃 (Tell your GF to use Avon’s Skin-So-Soft. It smells great and hunters use it religiously to repel bugs.) ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/9 "2001-08-07T01:33:40Z")
Are you sure it’s not just placebo effect? Let me quote from a message I posted on a technical forum regarding double-blind tests and the need for them: > [@](#): > > I’d like to describe an experience I recently had. > I’m one of those guys that mosquitos feed off of. When I’m out with friends, I’ll be frantically slapping at my skin, and my friends will look at me and say, “I’m not getting bit like that. You must attract mosquitos.” We’ve had lots of discussions as to why I might attract more mosquitos than they do - higher skin temperature, exhaling more CO2, etc. > > Well, this year we had a drought in the spring, and therefore no mosquito hatchings. When I found out about that, I was ecstatic. So my wife and I have spent a lot of time outside, and for once I wasn’t always slapping at my skin. > > Well, a couple of days ago I was outside, and saw a mosquito biting me. I didn’t feel it. I slapped him. A while later, another one landed on me. Suddenly I could feel them again, and I started getting those ‘insect landing on me’ feelings all over. Once again I was slapping at mosquitos all over the place. > > When I came in and told my wife the mosquitos were back, she looked at me strangely and said, “They’ve been back for weeks. The paper said the second summer hatching was almost normal for this time of year.” > > Now, for two weeks there were mosquitos all over, but I didn’t notice them. When I finally did, suddenly they began attacking me again. And now when I go outside, I’m always slapping at them, and it drives me nuts. > > Now understand that this sensation is REAL to me. It bothers me a lot. I wish it would go away. But there is plenty of evidence here that it’s totally manufactured in my brain. I don’t attract mosquitos more than other people. I just THINK I do. So my brain manufacturers the sensations to support my pre-conceived belief. > > And you know what? As I’m typing this, I’ve gotten a bit itchy. I’ve had to scratch my arms a couple of times typing this message, and I can’t remember scratching them at all the entire day before this. > > Not all is as it seems when the brain is involved, even if the perception is very powerful. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/10 "2001-08-07T04:29:55Z")
I don’t think it’s a placebo effect. I’m native Australian, from the sub-tropics and mossies are a fact of life in summer. My wife came out from England 4 or 5 years ago. She gets bitten a lot, I don’t appear to. If she wakes up in the morning with bites, we will subsequently find that we unknowingly left a window open, or didn’t put the mossie repeller on or whatever. So that can’t be placebo effect. I do think that the phenomena is at least partly explained by the theories expressed above that I (and other hardened veterans) get bitten but just don’t notice, because my body no longer reacts much. But there is a lot of serious research done in the area and I’m pretty sure I recall that pheromone differences between people did have a scientifically verifiable effect. Sorry no cite. ---
**Author:** ![TitoBenito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@TitoBenito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TitoBenito)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/11 "2001-08-07T05:05:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by misterbuster \* > \*\*I’m an incredibly pale white-boy. 🙂 > My girlfriend is chinese, and has a dark tan most of the summer. > > she’s the one that get’s bitten. > > so… thus far we’ve eliminated smoking and dark skin as ways to relieve mosquito bites… \*\* exact same story here. Mosquito’s never seem to bite me when someone else is around, especially my girlfriend. I’m just going to through out some new facters that may mean nothing. I am really hairy, and I have AB blood. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/12 "2001-08-07T08:05:50Z")
I smoke, drink lots of coffee - I never get bit. My wife does not smoke and doesn’t drink much coffee - she’s eaten alive. Other then that… we eat the same and use mostly the same bath products. Her shampoo is different because I use plain soap on my hair. But it’s not the stinky shampoo stuff. …for what it’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![Karellen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/779978/32.png) [@Karellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karellen)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/13 "2001-08-07T10:49:19Z")
While the exact combination of things that attract mosquitos (Co2, odor, color, heat, light, blood flavor) is still being determined, we do know what causes the itchy swelling “bite”–it’s an allergy to the anti-coagulent in the skeeter’s spit. Seems that if we’re talking about an allergic reaction then we should expect the normal variation in individual severity. My dad’s violently allergic to cats. I sleep next to a cat every night. That’s no mystery to me, I just failed to inherit his allergy. Couldn’t it be that simple? ---
**Author:** ![Karellen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/779978/32.png) [@Karellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karellen)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/14 "2001-08-07T10:53:36Z")
that’s no mystery I just failed to inherit father’s allergy –Sorry, I couldn’t resist. We now return to the non-haiku portion of the thread. ---
**Author:** ![misterbuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@misterbuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterbuster)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquito-attraction/75102/15 "2001-08-07T11:34:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Karellen \* > \*\*That’s no mystery to me, I just failed to inherit his allergy. > > Couldn’t it be that simple? \*\* I guess it could be that simple, but that wouldn’t do us much good, would it? In addition, I’ve observed many mosquitoes flying right past me to get to my girlfriend. If we are in a dark room I only hear them buzzing around when I’m sitting next to her. I see them land on her all the time and whack them, she has never had to return the favor. there is absolutely something they like more about her. also: we love our coffee gallons consumed every day mosquitoes don’t care and my favorite off-topic haiku, written by yours truly: see the cuddly mouse scurry o’er the forest floor nightfall brings the owl