White outfits, sexy sunglasses, cool shorts, sunscreen lotions all must not be away from me the whole summers. And not to forgot the keep-mosquitoes-away lotion.

I’m quite a grown up but a failure in understanding the unnerving love of mosquitoes for my blood. And that buzzing noise….urrrrrgh!! I have so many nerves, and that buzz happens to get on each damn of it. So let’s find out the reasons for my face turning measly every hot season, for every year they come in armies and attack. Since people being common targets of mosquito bites are more vulnerable to  malaria and several other diseases, the topic is of medical concern.

THE MAIN CULPRIT

It’d be a great trivia to learn that It is not the make mosquitoes that bite us, but the female mosquito which fulfills its manic desire of sucking the human blood.

There ought to be mutual features in mosquitoes and humans which stand responsible for some people getting more bites than the others. Scientists have identified several proteins in mosquitoes’ antennae and heads that get attracted to chemical markers called odorants, emitted from our skin. These markers are produced by the natural processes of our bodies and commendably these culprits can smell these odorants and get ready to gnaw you and bite you and leave you itching all day long.

Coming to human body, CO2 (basically human breath) attracts mosquitoes. Some humans are quiet lucky to have body secretions(with certain smell) with insect repellent property, which helps avoiding mosquito attack. Only mosquitoes have the power to detect these secretions.

Body temperature and pregnancy further aggravate the problem [1]. A pregnant woman releases 21% more CO2 than a normal human, henceforth on an  average, leaving the body 1.26 degrees Fahrenheit warmer. This is sufficient to attract those six-legged species.

Knowing ample about mosquito bites, it would be rather intelligent to go through few tips to combat them:

• A good mosquito repellent like DEET can help tackle the problem.
• Put on long-sleeved sturdy shirts and long pants.
• As a matter of prevention, try being indoors as far as possible.
• DO NOT let water accumulate in front of your houses.
• Repair leaky sites.
• DO keep changing water regularly in coolers, swimming pools, ornamental ponds, pet bowls and bird baths. REMEMBER: Mosquitoes are a familiar annoying summer nuisance. They can be transmitters of encephalitis, malaria, and yellow fever to humans.

Scientists are trying hard to scratch out more reasons behind ‘the pesky bites’. Question of you being a mosquito magnet continues to itch away at scientists, and I suggest to rely on the mosquito repellents meanwhile.

References:
[1] Roger Dobson. Mosquitoes prefer pregnant women. PMCID: PMC1127358