Drinking beer and having sex can increase your chances of being stung by mosquitoes, according to a new study. The findings, which mark the largest study to date on what attracts mosquitoes, suggest the price many people pay to have fun.
Drinking beer and having sex can increase your chances of being stung by mosquitoes, according to a new study.
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The findings, collected by researchers at the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen in the Netherlands (obviously), identified the phenomenon while studying the behavior of mosquitoes in an attempt to limit the spread of diseases.
The research team that investigated diseases such as dengue, West Nile fever, Zika and malaria had noted that mosquitoes are considered to be responsible for around 2.7 million deaths each year. This has meant that the control of mosquito populations has become crucial for global public health, and thus a better understanding of which people are most often selected
was needed.
According to Popular Science, entomologists already know that mosquitoes search for carbon dioxide that their host exhales, and that a variety of sensory cues also play a role in where mosquitoes choose to land. Additionally, previous research has also suggested that olfactory indicators may play a role in directing mosquitoes to their prey.
Sensory elements influence a mosquito’s choice
The new research, led by biologist Felix Hol, has now investigated which biological and sensory factors can have the greatest influence on a mosquito’s choice. With this in mind, instead of asking volunteers to visit a lab, they took the study on their way to a place known for boosting the body’s physical response: a music festival.
The study, which took place over three days at the Lowlands Music Festival about 42 miles east of Amsterdam, had Hol and his team stationed in a pop-up lab inside interconnected shipping containers. The researchers then asked festival participants to fill out a questionnaire about some of their recent personal hygiene, diet, and lifestyle choices.
About 500 people volunteered not only to answer the survey, but also to place their arms in a specially designed cage that was filled with mosquitoes. According to Hol, the device was constructed with holes that were small enough for the insects to smell each person, but not large enough for them to sting the skin with their sucking proboscis.
During the study, the team recorded videos of the mosquitoes’ response to each of the participants compared to the response of a sugar feeder placed on the other side of the cage.
A taste for hedonists
After analyzing the collected data, the study’s authors recognized how the mosquitoes very often showed what they called a “clear preference” for people who had “enjoyed themselves”.
Most notably, the people who drank beer and had sex the night before the experiment were stated to be about 1.35 times more attractive to mosquitoes than any of the more sober or celibate participants. In addition, the mosquitoes preferred those who had not washed their skin since these activities or applied sunscreen.
The research, which was dubbed the “Mosquito Magnet Trial”, is now understood as the largest study of its kind to date, albeit with a “loosely controlled setting”. As such, the team has said they felt confident in claiming that mosquitoes “are attracted to those who avoid sunscreen, drink beer and share a bed”.
When describing the mosquitoes’ preferences, the researchers stated, “They simply have a taste for the hedonists among us.”
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