American researchers have discovered why certain skins attract mosquitoes more than others.
Who has never experienced such a situation… We fall asleep one summer evening next to someone and, the next day, we find ourselves studded with bites of mosquitoes while our neighbor does not have a single button! This phenomenon was studied by a team of American researchers who tried to discover why mosquitoes had a greater appetite for certain skins.
Transpiration et bas nylon
What seemed to be just a popular belief therefore seems to have a scientific explanation. In their published works in Cell magazinethe researchers asked 64 people to wear nylon stockings for several hours a day to collect sweat samples.
Stockings that were then “offered” to tiger mosquitoes to determine if some attracted them more than others. let’s remember that they are female mosquitoes who sting us to drink our blood.
Some people attract mosquitoes more
We already knew that mosquitoes are naturally attracted to CO2 and heat released by the human body. Researchers at Rockefeller University of New York have determined through more than 2000 laboratory tests that certain chemical factors come into play when the mosquito makes its choice!
The body odors of one of the study participants indeed attracted 4 times more mosquitoes than the second favorite insect participant. By closely analyzing the composition of samples taken from its popular mosquito “guinea pigs”, the researchers found a higher concentration of carboxylic acids in them.
Naturally secreted acids
These acids are naturally secreted via the sebum and serve in particular to protect the skin from external aggressions. Some people produce more than others and the level secreted remains constant throughout life. This would explain why mosquitoes are more attracted to certain people.
If you are part of this population whose mosquitoes are fond of mosquitoes, you are out of luck, the researchers noticed that the participants who attracted the most mosquitoes were attracted over all the years concerned by the study, regardless of their lifestyle. Where the repellents used.
