Here’s Why Mosquitoes Go After You Instead Of Your Friends

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How many times have you whined, “Why do mosquitoes bite me instead of everyone else around me?” only to hear an overly simplified response about how you just have “sweet skin?” Well, sugar doesn’t have anything to do with a mosquito’s attraction level, but your blood definitely does.

Research conducted by the Entomological Society of America found that O blood types attract more mosquitoes (the Aedes albopictus species specifically) than A and B blood types. The mosquitoes in this study landed on people with an O blood type almost twice as frequently as they landed on people with A blood types, and B blood types fell somewhere in the middle of the attraction spectrum. So if you’re the only O blood type in your friend group, bingo. 

Mosquitoes are also attracted to the carbon dioxide emitted from the human body — it’s how they identify their potential targets. And the rate at which your body releases CO2 depends mainly on your metabolic rate. The faster your metabolic rate, the more CO2 you wave in front of that mosquito’s face. Being pregnant and overweight or obese automatically boost your metabolic rate, so that could be why all of the bugs are flocking to you, too.

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Your metabolic rate also increases when you exercise and when you consume alcohol. So when you’re hiking and sweating and revving your internal engine, these annoying bugs come after you more frequently than if you were in a resting state. And you might even notice that more mosquitoes land on you after you’ve guzzled a cold beer or two at a backyard barbecue. You have your automatic CO2 emissions to thank for that.

Some mosquitoes are also attracted to specific substances that your body gets rid of as it sweats. Uric acid, lactic acid and steroids are all favorites of these bugs, so if you naturally sweat out more of these fun things than your friends standing next to you, mosquitoes are likely to want you more.

Now, you might have noticed that the majority of these explanations have to do with your genetics and, therefore, are not in your power to control or change. And scientists believe that 85 percent of a mosquito’s attraction to a human lies in these factors. So even if this helps you pinpoint why they like you so much, there really isn’t anything you can do about it other than douse yourself in bug spray and wear protective clothing. Sorry, friends.

It’s also worth knowing that there are literally hundreds of mosquito species in the world (gross, we know) and each group has slightly different prey preferences. So the factors we’ve explained are typically the dominant attractors of these pesky little bugs, but this is certainly not an exhaustive list.