Do Mosquitoes Prefer A Certain Blood Type?
Feel like mosquitoes single you out? It might not be your imagination.
If you are a sporty type, have type O blood and are not as skinny as you used to be, then your paranoia is confirmed. Mosquitoes are out to get you.
Ten years of research into mosquito habits and two years persuading volunteers to be swarmed, has been enough for a Tokyo-based expert to draw conclusions. Dr Yoshikazu Shirai, who holds a PhD in medical entomology, based his findings on tests he did on 64 people who held their arm in a humid enclosure for 10 minutes. By repeating the experiment twice on different days, each person was eventually exposed to 105 mosquitoes.
In a climate-controlled, summery 23 degrees, mosquitoes reveal their weaknesses. Men are slightly more likely to be bitten than women but it is blood type (type O) and body heat that really get them interested.
Each mosquito had its proboscis (the part it bites with) amputated. Since the mosquitoes couldn’t bite, and thus couldn’t drink their fill, the researchers were able to compare how often they landed on the skin of different volunteers. They found those with type O blood were twice as attractive to mosquitoes than those with a different blood type.
Bonus: A different study found that mosquitoes prefer beer drinkers to water drinkers. Researchers exposed mosquitoes to body odors from water drinkers and beer drinkers and found that the bugs preferred the “breath and skin emanations” of beer drinkers.
My girlfriend sent me this link. This article validates what she and I have suspected for a long time. But I like my beer in the summer! Le sigh. No love for us universal donors.
I met a researcher at the University of Washington who is also studying the habits of mosquitoes. I went on vacation and was bitten hundreds of times so my interest in her work was piqued by the intensity of my sufferings. She said that her findings show that the mosquitoes are attracted to the lactic acid present in the body/blood. Makes perfect sense as I am very acidic. Now I’m searching for ways to become pH balanced in my body for better health and not to attract those evil mosquitoes.
They probably like beer drinkers more because of the extra co2 in their breath.