Just in time for mosquito season
This study shows which scents attract mosquitoes
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Summer time is mosquito time and certain smells act as lures. A study has been able to determine exactly what these are.
Mosquitoes are a plague – at least for humans. Not all mosquitoes are the same, there are many types and only a few of them are the annoying bloodsuckers that cause itchy spots on our skin. At least for some people: while some people are bitten by mosquitoes, others seem uninteresting to the flying beasts. Why?
A universal answer can be the study the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the USA do not exist – but in their investigation, the scientists were at least able to determine that certain scents actually attract mosquitoes. And others can actually repel them.
Certain ingredients in shower gels attract mosquitoes
In the study, four washing gels from different manufacturers in the USA were tested on five people. These were two men and three women between the ages of 24 and 33 years. Nylon strips were put on the subjects, one on an unwashed forearm and one on one washed with the gel. The test was repeated four times for each wax gel.
After one hour, the nylon strips were placed in a cage with female mosquitoes. The result: Mixing the body odor with the four soaps either attracted or repelled the mosquitoes, depending on the soap’s ingredients. Fabrics such as:
- Lilial
- allyl heptanoates
- Alpha-Isomethyl Ionones
On the other hand, the following substances seemed to repel the mosquitoes in combination with body odor:
- benzyl benzoates
- gamma nonalactones
It remains unclear how the combination works
Have you now found the safe repellents for mosquito plagues? Probably not, as the researchers also make clear: Sure, the ingredients mentioned above can be quickly googled and found out in which shower gels they can be found. But they alone are not the main reason why the mosquitoes were deterred. Age, gender, food intake, an existing pregnancy … these are just a few factors that have an impact on your own body odor.
Another Problem: Unfortunately, with only five subjects, the study is anything but meaningful; the young age of the participants alone makes it difficult to draw any conclusions about other age groups. But the scientists are planning another study based on this design, this time with more participants and more washing gels, in order to examine the potentially repellent substances in more detail.
Sources used: cell.com, vtx.vt.edu, mdr.de, t-online.de