While some people quietly enjoy the outdoors, others are literally eaten alive by a cloud of bloodsuckers. Why do mosquitoes react differently to two people in the same place, giving one no rest, while the other is not even interested?
Some may think that the increased attractiveness to mosquitoes is a figment of the imagination of the person being bitten, who really dislikes insects. But studies of this phenomenon have shown that the interest of blood-sucking insects in individual humans is not fiction at all, and may be due to several factors.
Color of clothing
As it turns out, mosquitoes closely follow fashion and prefer to fly to clothes of a certain color. Of course, we made a joke about fashion, but bloodsuckers are really more attracted to people dressed in dark clothes
Movement
If you are actively moving and waving your arms, you are not driving insects away, but, on the contrary, actively attracting them.
Body Heat
When a female mosquito gets close to a human, it begins to navigate with human body heat. The insects' sensitive organs will pick up even the slightest difference in body temperature, directing the mosquito toward the warmer person. It turns out that you will attract more attention after exercise. Also at risk are sick people, pregnant women, whose body temperature is usually higher than normal.
Carbon dioxide
Mosquitoes can detect the source of carbon dioxide from a distance of 50 meters using a special organ next to the proboscis. All humans exhale carbon dioxide as part of their natural breathing process, but some exhale more and others less. For example, pregnant women exhale 21 percent more carbon dioxide than other people. Children, on the other hand, will not attract the attention of mosquitoes as much because they exhale less carbon dioxide than.
Alcohol consumption
Finally good news for pregnant women: alcohol is very strongly attracted to insects, so women in the position will be able to breathe easy if there are people drinking near them. It is not yet completely clear how blood-sucking insects detect the presence of alcohol in the air or blood, but according to observations it is enough to drink 350 ml of beer to earn the attention of numerous gnats.
Skin properties
Almost 85% of your attractiveness to mosquitoes and other intrusive insects depends on the properties of your skin. You can wear white, breathe very little, and not consume a drop of alcohol, but if the secretions from the glands on your skin contain a lot of lactic and uric acid, be prepared to be constantly attacked by insects.
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