For millions of people around the world, mosquitoes are a mortal danger from which they must defend themselves with all possible means. For everyone else they are “just” a nuisance, more or less bearable depending on their quantity, but also on their preferences. Because you know it well too: there are people who seem to work like mosquito magnets, and others (lucky ones!) who are left more or less alone. But on what basis do mosquitoes choose us?
According to a study by Radboud University in Nijmegen, Holland, published in pre-print on bioRxiv and conducted during a music festival, one of the main causes of the magnet effect is… beer.
A “sacrifice” for us. A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise, known more simply as Lowlands, is a music festival held annually in the village of Biddinghuizen. In its almost sixty years of history it has hosted international artists (one of the first editions saw Pink Floyd on stage). In 2023, festivalgoers also found themselves faced with a new attraction: a laboratory run by Radboud University in which anyone who wanted could offer their arm as a sacrifice for science. The study just published is the result of the analysis of that data.
The study. The approximately 500 volunteers who participated in the study were first faced with a questionnaire to fill out, in which they were asked questions about their hygiene, diet and general behavior. They were then taken to the mosquito cage, where they were asked to stick their arm in. The cage was constructed in such a way as to allow the insects to smell the volunteer, but not to bite him, and in each cage the mosquitoes had the choice between the human arm and a vat of sugar water. The interactions were recorded with a video camera, and the results integrated with those of the questionnaire.
No beer, yes shower. Cross-referencing the two data sets revealed one thing first and foremost: people who drink more beer are more attractive to mosquitoes – 1.35 times more attractive, to be precise. The study doesn’t explain why, but the experiment also gave us other interesting results (and useful if you want to avoid being tormented by mosquitoes): for example, the fact that these insects prefer a person who had sex the previous night to one who went without sleep.
Other factors that have emerged are the use of sunscreen (mosquitoes prefer “clean” and not smeared skin) and whether or not a person has recently taken a shower: here too, those who wash are less likely to be targeted by mosquitoes. In short: no beer, no sex, yes sunscreen, yes shower – four simple rules that should make your life easier (even if definitely less fun).
