Loved-One is a mosquito magnet. I am not. My heart rate is low, my body temperature is naturally a little lower than normal, and my blood pressure tends to be low. Plus, I rarely sweat.

“Maybe the mosquitoes don’t know I’m alive,” I joke.

Yesterday, I discovered there might be another reason. I don’t drink beer.

This sounds like a fun science experiment. Something ripe for Mythbusters.

…researchers turned to one of the world’s least hygienic and most chaotic environments: a music festival. 

National Geographic 25Sep25

It seems to be common knowledge that mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide. By why some people more than others? Well, it turns out that scientists theorize in some of the same ways that Loved-One and I do. Body heat and odor may play a part. Oh, and people with less a diverse skin microbiome could be more attractive to mosquitoes.

How did I miss that one? Anyone who knows me knows how I love the microbiome. (Just search for microbiome in the sidebar and you’ll see a few posts by me.)

Scientists set up a makeshift lab in shipping containers at the Lowlands music festival in a rural area of the Netherlands. About 500 festivalgoers filled out a personal survey that included habits and some medical information. Researchers also measured blood alcohol levels with a breathalyzer and did a swab for microbes. Next the party-goers exposed their arm to blood-thirsty mosquitoes. Don’t worry. The mosquitoes only smelled the arms through a mesh. No biting allowed.

Crowds gathered outside the storage containers and cheered as each participant’s attractiveness score popped up on a screen outside. “I was really, really positively surprised by the sheer enthusiasm,” says Felix Hol, a biophysicist also at Radboud University Medical Center and co-author on the study.

national geographic

Mosquitoes were more likely to land on people who drank beer or wine in the last 12 hours, consumed cannabis in the last 48 hours, avoided sunscreen, and shared their beds with others. The people most attractive to mosquitoes tended to have higher levels of Staphylococcus on their skin.

Whew! Those things seem more like repellents than attractants!

Scientists aren’t drawing any conclusions yet. Maybe it’s more about the behavior than anything else.

“Perhaps more alcohol means more dancing, means a smellier body, or something like that,” Hol says.

National Geographic

I wonder if any studies explain why flies bite me and leave Love-One alone. I bet it’s my low body temperature, low blood pressure, and lack of sweat. They probably think I’m already dead!