Both my sons went outside to play. Both were wearing shorts and t-shirts. Both were playing in the sand box. They were there for the same amount of time.
Son #1 came in with over 20 mosquito bites!
Son #2 had only 1 bite.
Why do mosquitos seem to prefer some people to others?
Note: “some people” = “CurtC”
BTW, my wife of 20 years never, ever gets a mosquito bite.
No! Don’t let this thread die without an answer! Please, someone must know!
I was told that it was do with blood sugar level. Apparently children and smokers are the most likley to be bit.
I have a hypothosis that people get the same number of bites but some react more to them than others.
Haj, whose wife claims to have never gotten a mosquito bite
And I heard that smokers were less likely to be bitten. 
V
I didn’t say bitten, I said bit
I don’t know but my wife gets bitten far more then me. FWIM’s I have been on a low carb diet for 10 yrs.
This site from the University of New Jersey gives details of what makes some people more attractive to mosquitoes than others. Factors include colour of clothing, CO2 levels, perfumes, hairsprays, levels of folic acid, and body odour. But concludes by saying that in most cases only the mosquitoes know why they like some people more.
OTOH here’s another site that contradicts several things in the previous one
Another bit of anecdotal data: I once met a young chemotherapy patient, around 11 or 12 years old. After she underwent the chemotherapy, mosquitoes stopped biting her.
The mosquitos always bit my mother more than my father when we were kids, she said it was because she was so much sweeter. 
I don’t believe anyone “never” gets biten, but I’m in that group that wonders why everyone else is complaining about the mosquitos. I only get biten by mistake. 
I almost never get bit, yet my gf gets eaten all the time. One factor with me is that I take alot of different vitamins, so maybe my blood tastes funny to em.
We taste better.
scratch, scratch
I read somewhere (no cite) that they’re more attracted to blue fabric. We also have a local government TV ad that urges people to wear white clothes to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. But some websites I’ve read contradict this by saying they’re attracted to bright fabrics.
Anyway, another site: BBC link
I always thought it had to do with blood-type. :smack:
I’m one of the mossie-attractors.
Mr Goo and I will both be sitting outside, him with shorts on and me with long pants on. As long as my pants aren’t denim, or something as thick as, I will get bitten frequently through my pants, while Mr Goo gets nary a bite on his bare legs. Bastard. 
We’ve given up trying to figure out why, after making sure our diet was exactly the same, our deodorant was identical, etc through one summer. Now I just pile on the repellants and go inside earlier, and am resigned to the fact that I must look like a bloody buffet to mosquito eyes. I’d love to know why, though.
Forgot to add, we also dressed in the same colours of an evening on that annoying summer we were trying to solve the mosquito mystery.
We are different blood types, though. Not much we can do about that.
It seems that in the majority of cases when a man and women go out it is the women who gets bitten the most!
The majority of the above postings seem to confirm this!
Hairy Legs Maybe?
My understanding is that the 2 main factors are CO[sub]2[/sub] and odor, followed by heat.
http://www.acponline.org/journals/annals/01jun98/mosquito.htm
Interesting sidenote:
A guy I know lives in rural NY. He has a large wooded property and his dog runs loose in it. The dog used to come home with oodles of ticks. I don’t know how he discovered it, but he began to give the dog a garlic pill every day. The dog hasn’t had a tick on it all summer.
The vet said there’s nothing to it, but the guy insists it works, so when he and my BIL hiked up to a remote fishing hole, they took a garlic pill for a few days before and each day of the trip. They insist they got no bites.
So, I started to take them (a couple of weeks ago), since I am not only a Nut Magnet, but a mosquito magnet as well. You know, the only guy getting bitten at a BBQ with 20 people. I have a high metabolic rate and throw off a lot of heat.
Well I know this is anecdotal and therefore not conclusive, but lemme tell ya, it works. Although I have gotten bitten some, it’s nothing like before. It’s got to be something to do with odor.
[sub]BTW the garlic pills don’t make me smell (any worse than I used to)[/sub]