Why you get bitten by mosquitos more than other people

Your mother lied to you when she said it was because you were so sweet.

The answer may be linked to stinky socks, 200 pairs of which are being used by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to see if the mosquito attraction is genetic.

The sock pairs came from pairs of identical and non-identical twins.

They will put them the socks and some mosquitos together in a wind tunnel.

No, this isn't something from Acme labs - we checked.

The scientists hope to see which feet produced repellant and attractive chemicals to mosquitos.

Twins were used because an earlier study found mosquitos preferred identical twins to non-identical twins.

James Logan, who began the project in June 2017, told Scientific American:

We know very little about the genetics of what makes us attractive to mosquitoes.

We hope this study will give us more insights into the mechanisms that help change our body odours to make us more or less attractive to mosquitoes.

The hope is that by identifying certain genes that may produce chemicals that repel, a form of repellant medication based on those chemicals could be created.

Previous research has found that mosquitos prefer humans who create certain types of acid, such as uric acid, and pregnant women.

HT Net Doctor

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