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Are You a Mosquito Magnet?

webmd.com — Experts try to crack the code behind why mosquitoes like some humans more than others.

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  • bryano, on 10/10/2007, -1/+19Mosquitos seem to love me but I always thought it was just because my blood tastes lovely to them
  • dview, on 10/10/2007, -0/+68Only the females like me.
    • ziffel, on 10/10/2007, -12/+6female mosquitoes are the only ones that bite. same for fleas.
    • DustinR, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Now if only you had a mosquito tallywhacker you would be set.
    • jesuswuzanalien, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Obviously you aren't talking about humans. (Digg user)
  • djironx, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7those little buggers stay clear of me most of the time. Its crazy how my friends will have tons of mosquito bites after being out all day, while I have none at all. I guess my blood isn't good enough for the breeding of a lesser species :(
    • Waterrat, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1 I get far lesser bites than most of my friends.
      it's the deer flies and no see um's that like me.
  • DeskFlyer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+30"Are You a Mosquito Magnet?"

    I lived in Naples, FL for 10 years and I'm fairly confident that those ***** consumed about 400 gallons of my blood during my residency down there. So yes.

    /itches
    • zeromancer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13"Are You a Mosquito Magnet?"

      No sir, I am a meat popsicle.
  • thelastknowngod, on 10/10/2007, -5/+3i wonder if it doesnt have something to do with blood type.

    my brother and one other friend get bit up all the time. they both have type o negative. i am a different blood type and i dont think i have ever been bit in my entire life.
    • johnpaul191, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1i always heard the mosquitos can detect blood type and ann individual mosquito has a preference for a certain type. maybe they are not generally into your blood type.
    • FrightfulxNight, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I'm type O too..every week I've got like 5 - 15 mosquito bites..
    • akaii, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Uhh. I don't remember where I found this...
      "ARIES: Mar 21 - Apr 19
      You are the pioneer type and hold most people in contempt. You are quick tempered, vain and scornful of advice. Most people avoid you, dogs won't bite you and even mosquitos generally leave you alone."
      Apparently, I was born in Apri. Mosquitoes rarely bother me... *shrugs*
    • Dugg2Death, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I'm A+ and I swear to god they sound the dinner bell if I'm within 5 miles
  • TheFourthDay, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11i was getting itchy the entire time i read this.
    • ArgusSmith, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I just came in from mowing the grass... I have at least 10 bites on my legs, :(.
  • afdager, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2If mosquitoes were babes...
  • thedogmatist, on 10/10/2007, -3/+13My mom always said it was because I was so sweet ;)
  • wildfire, on 10/10/2007, -1/+17I have no clue -- I stay indoors with my computers and beer... and A/C.
  • nsjoker, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4It's actually pretty interesting to see this in action when you have a magnet person next to you. My ex would get bit like 20 times when she went outside. As long as she was next to me I never got a bite, it was like having my own human mosquito-repellent.
  • Kyrgizion, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1I've read other reports on studies and they all seemed to agree it had to do with feromones... Sexually active couples would attract a LOT more mosquitoes than anything else.
  • mtbterain, on 10/10/2007, -5/+0not so sure about musquitos, but my-skeet-hoes, dry to suck more then my blood
  • pyry, on 10/10/2007, -3/+4I think it's just that some people complain more, not that mosquitos bite them more.
  • murphygr, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1one mosquito comes near me and i get pissed, and then move around more swatting at it, and breath out more carbon dioxide....*****
  • skyscape, on 10/10/2007, -12/+0They sitll dont know why mosgutoes bite?
    ...but they sure know God doesnt' exist.
    • loganhid, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4there is a little known button right next to "submit comment"button that can replace words that are not spelt .
      that is created for peaple like you.............
      • Iamthechamp, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2To bad they don't have a grammar button.
    • skyscape, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0well see, business men like me have no time for spell checkers. Unfortunately my secretary doesnt work on saturdays to check my spelling, so I kind of have to rely on your intelect to get my point
  • MrNewbie, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Add more garlic to your diet, mosquitoes leave you alone. Simple.
    • Cimlite, on 10/10/2007, -1/+19Add more garlic to your diet and generally everyone leaves you alone.
      • 2shae, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1True but garlic is like nerve gas for them that's why...kinda like vampires

        Also they come after the CO2 that you exhale and that's also how they know when you're asleep.
  • DustinR, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Mosquito bites don't even phase me anymore after being to Alaska. In Alaska the mosquitoes swarm outside the windows like bees. But for some reason when they bite you, you don't get itchy. I don't know if the mosquitoes don't like me because I smoke cigs and bud. After my Alaskan trip I have only had like 2 itchy bites in 6 years.
    • 2shae, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Alaska?

      Kinda cold for mosquito ain't it.
      • patm1987, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2fta:
        "How about cold climates in places such as Alaska? You're safe for most of the year. But, says Conlon, mosquitoes flock there for a brief, three-week period between July and August. "The Arctic National Refuge is one big bog," Conlon explains, making the mosquito population there second only to that in the Florida Everglades."
    • LegOfLamb, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Actually, the cigarette/pot smoke probably masks the scent of your carbon dioxide, or at least makes it more difficult to detect. So you may be right there.
  • mason215, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1MOSQUITOS SUCK ASS
  • skyscape, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Mosquitos are cool, they keep you in shape
  • L0g1X, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0The mosquito ultrasonic sound thing doesn't work. They still come after you if they're hungry. There's these citronella stickers that you stick on your shirt and it's very good defense. http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4156
  • Bordergal, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Mosquitoes and insects NEVER bite my adult daughter. She asked a research scientist about it on line and he said it has something to do with her blood gases. She probably has an ancestor who was lucky enough to be immune to insects, but we don't know who it would be. Unfortunately, she didn't pass that immunity on to her children.
  • CompleXz, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Nasty buggers :)
  • ksw870, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1hey, try living in stuttgart, arkansas....during the summer you can go outside at night time and just move your arms through the air and you can feel millions of mosquitos hitting your arm. We have lots of farms around our area which they are constantly pumping water into the fields, and they surround out town. Our town is the Rice and Duck capital of the world, but I'm sure were probably the mosquito capital too.
    • usherzx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I thought I was the only person from Arkansas who used Digg... weird
      Little Rock
  • nerditup, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1mmm fun to scratch
  • daviddiaz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I went to running camp last week and i must have 20 bites in each extremity and 30 more in my back and chest.

    I was covered in bug spray the whole time too.
  • GiJoeBob, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I hope they figure this out because we have ten gazzillion mosquitoes here in East Texas and they all are after me.
  • labaq, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0To my knowledge people who have "O" blood type tend to get more bytes by mosquitoes than others who have a different blood type.
    • CorporateSlave, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0id like to know where you heard this bc it seems doubtful to me that the mosquito knows your blood type before or even after sucking it.
  • newsbynemo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Cajuns recommed Skin-so-Soft for the no-see-ums, not for mosquitos.
  • alothrop, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I went camping one time and to protect myself at night I covered my whole body up to my nose with my sleeping bag and then pulled a beanie down to the top of my nose. In the morning I had 17 bites on the thin exposed strip of my face as well as one on my eyelid. Yes, I am a mosquito magnet.
    • 2shae, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Eat more garlic next time....it's like nerve gas to them so they won't come close to you.
      No Joke
  • BlackCow, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I don't know about you guys but I found that here in the new england area the mosquitos have been almost non-exsistant. I live very near the woods and I haven't had to put bug spray on once and I have only been bitten once maybe twice this summer. Maybe the little ***** will die off :-)
  • johnpaul191, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1an odd thing i noticed about mosquitos.... i used to get bit pretty regularly. i always ate a good amount of garlic too. when i went vegan (6 years ago) i stopped getting bit. i have talked to other vegans that noticed the same thing. i have no idea if there is something in dairy that they smell or what, but i was vegetarian for about 7 years before going vegan and i was still getting bit. my vegan friends also said it was only when they went vegan that they were left alone.
    that being fascinating and all.... the mysterious vegan trick does not keep away some other nasty as hell bugs, like those hostile biting flies that live near the beach. they all still seem to chomp away, just the mosquitos skip us. weird.
  • lukas88, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1For a long time I have suffered feelings of rejection from not getting mosquitos while everyone else around me has them.

    I have heard that it is because I eat too much onions.

    So what do I do?
  • yoda17, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Not as much as this lady

    http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/top_story/63
  • Ben174, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Seems whenever we used to go camping, I'd never get bit and my girlfriend would. She pointed out that I was usually ***** drunk and she never drank a drop, and that mosquitoes can't stand alcohol in peoples' blood. That's the most believable explanation I've heard.
  • CryptiniteDemon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0This is actually kind of nice to read because I literally attract clouds of mosquitoes. You know how Linus has that cloud of dirt around him on Charlie Brown? That's what it looks like when mosquitoes are around me. Like if I stand near people who have mosquitoes around them, they will all come over to me and nobody will have them around them anymore. It's at least nice to know why now.
  • daggero19, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Do you get bitten a lot by mosquitoes? If you do, then I bet Cheetos stick to you more than most people. In junior high school, I had all of my classmates fill out a survey. It turned out that there was a direct correlation between Cheetos-stickiness and Mosquito-itchiness. I got an A.
    • Snarfy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1According to the article, the amount of cholesterol (oil) on your skin is proportional to how much you get bitten. I bet Cheetos stick to oily skin much better than dry skin.
  • LegOfLamb, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I found out that, if I drink a half bottle of Drano before I go outside, mosquitoes won't bite me because of my highly toxic blood! I only discovered this after I woke up from my coma, though.
  • MrKas, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I used to get bitten fairly regularly but for some reason they no longer come near me... I haven't been bitten by one for a few years now - can't work out why either!
  • unknownpoltroon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Generally the opposite. I believe Mosquitos dislike Guinness and whiskey.
  • mastastealth, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"One in 10 people are highly attractive to mosquitoes," reports Jerry Butler, PhD, professor emeritus at the University of Florida.

    I'm definitely that 1/10. :P It's amazing to see how my dad can pretty much sit right next to me at the dinner table, and I'm the one that gets a streak of 3 bites per foot or something of that sort. I even watched a mosquito BITE his arm, and it looks like nothing happened, not even a little red dot (I'm practically allergic to some bites, they bulge out of my arm like some disease!). -_-
  • Ron247, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1i hear eating lots bananas make mosquitoes even more attracted to you.
    im from Florida...so im used to those buggers...time to move to the mountains =P
  • wonkknows, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0If you don't want to get bit by mosquitoes just offer your camping buddies bananas. Try it and post back here how it works ;)
  • smartte, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Mosquito never likes me! Hahaha... =D
  • kballweg, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Although several sites seem to say that Thiamin (Vitamin B1) doesn't work, I read some research a long time ago that said that it works in one out of three of the people who are attractive to mosquitoes. It seems to change the strength of whatever attractant those of us who prroduce what ever acts as an attractant. I am one of those who is very much a magnet, but I'm also one of the ones that Thiamin works for. Takes a long period to build up in the blood stream, and the only way to know if you are one of the lucky ones, is trial and error.

    Here's the Wikipedia entry: "Some studies suggest that taking thiamine (vitamin B1) 25 mg to 50 mg three times per day is effective in reducing mosquito bites. A large intake of Thiamine produces a skin odor that is not detectable by humans, but is disagreeable to female mosquitoes.[6] Thiamine takes more than 2 weeks before the odor fully saturates the skin. With the advances in topical preparations there is an increasing number of Thiamine based repellent products. Whilst there is considerable anecdotal evidence of Thiamine products being effective in the field (Australia, US and Canada), there has yet to be any clinical trials run to demonstrate the efficacy of these products."

    Again the old study I read said that it was effective for only one out of three of the people who produce what ever attractant female mosquitoes respond to.
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