Beer drinkers are mosquito magnets, in line with a pageant examine

It’s a well-known scene for many people. A heat summer season night, a mild breeze after which the inevitable high-pitched whine of a mosquito buzzing close to your ear. For some, it is a fleeting annoyance, however for others, it means an evening of endlessly scratching itchy welts. Some persons are merely mosquito magnets whereas others emerge comparatively unscathed. But why is that this so? One rationalization, in line with scientists from the Netherlands, is beer.

To discover out why the blood-sucking critters want some individuals over others, a analysis crew led by Felix Hol of Radboud University Nijmegen took hundreds of feminine Anopheles mosquitoes to Lowlands, an annual music pageant held within the Netherlands.

Researchers arrange a pop-up lab in linked delivery containers in 2023, and round 500 volunteers took half. First, they crammed out a questionnaire about their hygiene, weight loss program and habits on the pageant. Then, to see how engaging they’re to mosquitoes, they positioned their arm right into a custom-designed cage stuffed with the pesky bugs.

The cage had tiny holes so the mosquitoes might scent the particular person’s arm however could not chunk them. A video digicam recorded what number of bugs landed on a volunteer’s arm in comparison with a sugar feeder on the opposite aspect of the cage. By evaluating the video footage and questionnaire solutions, researchers noticed some clear outcomes emerge.

Participants who drank beer have been 1.35 instances extra engaging to mosquitoes than those that did not. The tiny vampires have been additionally extra more likely to goal individuals who had slept with somebody the earlier night time. The examine additionally revealed that latest showering and sunscreen make individuals much less engaging to the buzzing menace.

“We found that mosquitoes are drawn to those who avoid sunscreen, drink beer, and share their bed,” the researchers wrote in a paper uploaded to the bioRxiv preprint server. “They simply have a taste for the hedonists among us.”

Protection from a public well being risk

Mosquitoes usually are not simply annoying biters; they’re additionally a critical public well being risk as a result of they’ll unfold ailments comparable to malaria and dengue fever. Any analysis that may maintain us out of hurt’s method is a superb assist.

Although this examine was restricted to only one pageant and a few of its attendees, it nonetheless offers insights into why some persons are particularly interesting to mosquitoes. And it presents data on shield in opposition to being bitten, comparable to lathering on sunscreen, showering frequently and limiting beer consumption or avoiding it altogether.

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