Feel like mosquitoes single you out? It might not be your imagination.
If
you are a sporty type, have type O blood and are not as skinny as you
used to be, then your paranoia is confirmed. Mosquitoes are out to get
you.
Ten years of research into mosquito habits and two years
persuading volunteers to be swarmed, has been enough for a Tokyo-based
expert to draw conclusions. Dr Yoshikazu Shirai, who holds a PhD in
medical entomology, based his findings on tests he did on 64 people who
held their arm in a humid enclosure for 10 minutes. By repeating the
experiment twice on different days, each person was eventually exposed
to 105 mosquitoes.
In a climate-controlled, summery 23 degrees,
mosquitoes reveal their weaknesses. Men are slightly more likely to be
bitten than women but it is blood type (type O) and body heat that
really get them interested.
Each mosquito had its proboscis (the
part it bites with) amputated. Since the mosquitoes couldn’t bite, and
thus couldn’t drink their fill, the researchers were able to compare how
often they landed on the skin of different volunteers. They found those
with type O blood were twice as attractive to mosquitoes than those
with a different blood type.
Bonus: A different study found that
mosquitoes prefer beer drinkers to water drinkers. Researchers exposed
mosquitoes to body odors from water drinkers and beer drinkers and found
that the bugs preferred the “breath and skin emanations” of beer
drinkers.
Source: http://zidbits.com/2011/01/do-mosqitoes-prefer-a-certain-blood-type/