Study offers clues into when and why mosquitoes bite

Mosquitoes always seem to come exclusively to me instead of my wife. I would love to understand this "preference" but unfortunately the article doesn’t really explain it.

Do you have o blood type?

Is there any reason to suppose that blood type plays a role?

It's a big deal for blood transfusion but that doesn't automatically make it relevant to mosquito preferences, and TFA doesn't mention blood type.

>Is there any reason to suppose that blood type plays a role?

Yes. https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/41/4/796/885285

Hardly conclusive, but there is some reason to suspect it plays a role.

O+. I didn't know blood type could be a factor, thank you for the tip, I'll look into this.

Me too. BTW I'm A so don't think it is the reason. I also heard that blood sugar plays a hand here, but could also be pseudoscience.

I always wonder, is it that some people don't get bitten or that some people don't react to getting bitten?

O- here but I very, very rarely get bitten. My wife is A and gets it very badly.

Possibly both. I've certainly observed mosquitos biting people who say they don't get bitten -- they just don't notice, which may not be a good thing.

The latter for me absolutely.

Mosquitoes have never left any kind of mark or bump or bite on my skin.

I can sometimes feel them biting (injecting? whatever) and I smack/brush them away but that's the most nuisance they cause.

I've always wondered why.

I think how much they're attracted to you and how much you react to bites are independent. My daughter and I can be in the same place outside for a while and she'll end up with many welts while I have nothing. I do catch them biting me sometimes but she just gets swarmed.

I'm pretty sure as a kid I got a lot more bites. My kid's a teen so I wonder if hormones play a part.

Also O- and it's the other way around for us. Mosquitos hunt me but usually leave my wife alone.

Wife is O- and is a mosquito magnet that gets huge welts that take ages to go away. I'm A+ and get bites, but they usually don't last long.

I’ve literally seen them chase me and avoid others I am with. I also do react and get welts/itchy, but they 100% are also chasing me more than others.

Definitely seems the case here that hormones play a part. When my wife was pregnant she got 100% of the bites. Now we’re having a son and the bites are even again

I am skeptical. To figure out the blood type of someone, wouldn’t they need to bite anyway? There are more compelling studies showing effects of CO2 and smells.

Just one anecdote as a type 2 person: I cannot prove it scientifically yet, but I did notice that on bad diet days, I get bit more than otherwise.

I spent some time in the Peruvian Amazon with local medicine families. In some groups they believe that when mosquitos buzz around the ears, some bodies automatically react by sending blood to the skin in preparation for an immune response (possibly a learned response from a past bite or perhaps inherited). A symptom of that response is goosebumps at the sound of mosquitos.

A cabbie told me, he heard certain blood types attract.

I’ve tested my dreaded mosquito tastiness. I always count bites after a hike and compare to others. No one ever comes close.

O+ here and them pesky skeeters ab-so-lootly LUV me. Summer is antihistamine season.

I wish there is some study for that, hmmm. I usually keep the same (bad) diet every day so it's kinda hard to test.

It's either smell, body heat, or easy access to skin. Maybe you sweat more than your wife, or the compounds in your sweat are more attractive to mosquitos, or maybe her hygiene is better.

The smelliest parts of people are the sweat glands and mouth. I pay extra care to my smell when archery hunting by keeping my teeth brushed and using wet wipes on sweaty areas. Eating an apple also helps neutralize mouth odor.

Blood type also has an effect

https://ourbloodinstitute.org/blood-matters/mosquitoes-blood...

O+ and they bite me a lot too...