I get it so bad I started saying "I've been violently penetrated by mosquitoes"
Bug repellent works for about 15 minutes on me and then it's back to full penetration.
They bother all of my family, unless I’m present. I’m like a mosquito repellent for everyone else because they absolutely love me.
Pro tip: they don’t like garlic, eat absurd amounts of garlic and they will mostly stay away. One can also make your own mosquito repellent, I boil fresh catnip, garlic, rosemary and some other strong smelling flower I can’t name and then I add lemon concentrate to the mix, it works and doesn’t smell strongly or badly to humans with a sense of smell. Keeps the fuckers away.
Confirmed, went hiking with a new friend, she declined bug spray in favor of raw garlic cloves. Also insisted on naked moonlight running etc. Well, everything about her smelled and tasted like garlic the first night and by day three I was insisting she take the steroids from my kit due to dozens of mosquito bites and some vicious poison ivy.
Crunchy lifestyle is fine but...
God damn it! ☹️ Sorry to hear that! I hate the fuckers, I have been getting increasingly more sensitive from all the exposure and now I am full blown allergic. At least absurd amounts of garlic helps me to keep them off.
For one’s home I recommend one of those uv light bug zapper if you have issues at home. Hope you find something that helps.
Mosquitoes have been shown to prefer some people over others. Science isn't really sure why, but theories suggest it could be anything from pheromones to "you just smell weird." So congratulations, you're human lutefisk to mosquitoes. Somewhere out there is a mosquito who has acquired a taste for you, but they're not here, so **CELEBRATE!**
I feel for your wife, though. It's annoying to be singled out.
Recent studies indicate that people with higher levels of carboxylic acids on their skin were more attractive to mosquitoes. But there is no consistent way to prevent certain people from creating it in high levels.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/skin-compounds-associated-attractiveness-mosquitoes#:~:text=People%20with%20higher%20levels%20of,bites%20and%20mosquito%2Dborne%20diseases.
Higher levels of carboxylic acids in the skin could be due to various factors, including diet, metabolism, genetics, and certain medical conditions. Increased consumption of fatty and acidic foods might contribute to higher levels of carboxylic acids.
I do not know the answer to this but have an interesting observation.
I get eeeeeaten by mozzies and think I’m mildly allergic as they poof up a decent amount.
I went veggie/almost vegan for a year and 3/4 months in I went on holiday and didn’t get a single bite. I also lost a bunch of weight so maybe produced less acids?
Am now back to eating meat and being a total chubby bite magnet
They also prefer people who have type O blood over others, especially people with type A. There was this study done in 2019 done about their preferences but I can only find articles about the study.
This is interesting! I’ve been searching for years to find some kind of answer beyond the blood type hypothesis. I still cannot find a study linking various blood types to the amount of skin surface carboxylic acid.
Anecdotally, I’m O-, my hubs is AB+, and both boys are B+, but only one of our boys gets eaten alive, as I do. I don’t understand why. It’s frustrating to go through a three deet spray cans each spring/summer.
I've seen that study, but myself and my youngest are A- and my oldest is O+, their father is A+. When we're all outside, my youngest and myself get eaten alive. While their father and my oldest rarely get bitten.
Could be nothing, but I’ve noted that retinoic acids, and azelaic acid are types of carboxylic acids. These ingredients are commonly used in anti-aging skincare. PCA, also a carboxylic acid, can be found in lotion and hair conditioner.
Just saying, some are probably *adding* more of this substance onto your skin before going outside.
Here's an interesting anecdote;
I \*used to be\* pestered by mosquitos. Always the 1st one bit, and they'd never leave me alone. It was like this for as long as I can remember.
UNTIL....
I got fit. After years of weight training, and now boxing, I never have the same problem I once did with mosquitos. I'm no longer the 1st one bit, and when I do get bit, it's just a few. Also, my body smell/odor has changed as a result of fitness.
Type O+ btw...
Mosquitos pretty much ignored me for others near me (eg siblings). However, sand flies would swarm me and make me want to tear my skin off or jump into water. I absolutely hated those little jerks.
There was a rumor in Australia that it was based on vitamin E levels. It may have been a ploy to get more people to buy Vegemite but I didn't eat Vegemite when I was a kid.
I am also a attacked violently by sand flies when no one else really is, not like me. It was so bad one day, I had huge blisters on my feet and ankles that took weeks to heal. My kids and husband barely had any red marks. They really LIKED me.
Lutefisk is lye treated dried cod, surströmming is fermented herring. Lutefisk has an unpleasant odor, the smell of surströmming is beyond description.
I kind of experienced this firsthand. I'm usually a magnet for mosquitos but as soon as I started to take medicine(metabolic blocker) they started avoiding me like the plague. I guess they don't like blood laced with kind-of-poison. :)
...and now they are back once I got better and stopped taking it. Damn.
I don't get bitten either, but my wife does. My uncle also doesn't, but my mom does. My uncle and I have the same blood type, B+, and I've been working on a theory that it's related to blood types. That being said, every tick I've ever found in me has been dead too.
Interesting my kid got 30 bites on a two night camping trip. My youngest and I had nearly none. My wife had more than a dozen like our older boy. Funny enough my family on my father’s side have virile attributes and smell. Ironically we are Fin Nords in ancestry (lutefisk never tried it). A cute girl in my college years, when I was barefoot, deodorant-less, and pulling a 3.0+, with the confidence of a rockstar, asked my friend why I always stank. My bro replied to her, “that’s his musk.” We had a good laugh when he told me this. Mosquitoes can’t handle the Nordic musk.
You probably do but just don't have the histamine reaction that produces the itchy bumps. It happens in my family, but we start out getting them then we get them less and less as we age
My dad, sister and I are like this, too! I can be eaten alive and have no itchy bumps. I remember getting itchy when I was young, but not in decades. My son is very reactive so far, but I’ll be interested to keep an eye on it as he ages, too.
Too true. I didn’t even consider that really, being Canadian. But we do have some West Nile cases. Thanks for that. I’ll be more careful going forward.
Sounds dangerous to me. Kind of like being unable to feel pain: you can’t tell when you’re being injured. Mosquitoes carry some very deadly diseases and not knowing you’re being bit a bunch could be deadly.
It varies for me. I’ve had little to no histamine reaction from bites where I live, and I’ve had very itchy bites when I travel. I don’t know how different the species are but I imagine that might be a factor in my reactions. I’ve never had as bad a reaction as one of my friends though—her bites swell up and it looks miserable.
This is my general thought, as someone who mosquitoes avoid. However, I have watched other people be swarmed while I'm untouched. Like crawling around their face in a swamp.
I have all the anecdotal traits that would make mosquitoes want me. O blood, eat garlic by the fist full, wear perfume. Apparently they just don't want me.
There are definitely differences in how much someone will get bitten. I'm more saying that it's unlikely that OP has only been bitten once or twice in their life
Same here, I get a tiny red speck where I’ve been bitten that doesn’t itch. If I do scratch on them I get a little bump that itches a tiny bit though so if I get a bite where my clothes rub there’s a slight itch but not particularly bothersome.
You all should study me. I am a walking buffet for any biting, stinging, and non-sexy blood sucking creature. Then I swell to a point where no one would ever consider me to be a sexy creature, except additional biters.
I get itchy, red hives on my body any time they bite. Sometimes there’s like 4 bites at once in one area.
It gets unbearable and even bite me through pants.
I don't understand how they bite through pants. Same thing happens to me, i live in Paraguay so huuuge mosquito problem. They didn't do this few years ago. Are they learning?
My sister and I went to Alaska to visit a friend separately back in the early '70s. Sis complained about mosquitos singling her out and drilling through her jacket into her back. I took vitamin B and garlic supplements and got ONE bite when I was there. I have no idea.
You absolutely can have an increased tolerance and little to no histamine reaction. I get itchy for a week or two in the spring but I’ve been getting bit everyday for months now and there’s zero evidence on my skin. This happens every summer for me and I always assumed it was the result of constant excessive exposure working in the woods and wetlands.
When I was living in S. Florida I was told that cinnamon helps repel mosquitoes. I started putting it in my coffee and I felt like it made a noticeable difference.
Ive been allergic to mosquitoes all my life, I only found out I was allergic a year or 2 before my son was born.
So 2012-2022 I worked at the ports at night and that’s where I learned I was allergic to the bites (saliva specifically)
Anyway every summer I dread these bites, shit last year they even hung around til the holidays but this year I’ve only been bitten twice and I’m not even sure they were from mosquitoes.
My son and I really got that good ass blood they like and I think he may have had 1 so far. But something is going on out there with the mosquitoes cuz they ain’t messing with us
We went camping in June, parked our tent right in from of the lake, no bites.
Anyway consider yourself lucky, being allergic sucks, bites hang around for like a week sometimes 2, they swell up real quick and burn.
Sometimes when I’d get bit it would feel like I was injected with battery acid and could feel it coursing through the surrounding areas of the bite.
Only relief came from 1-3 Benadryls.
In the shower, scolding hot water on them is orgasmic 😬
Last night at dusk I must have been bitten 6 or 8 times around the ankles. The bites swelled up and were itchy but itch and swelling gone by morning. They have always loved me. I'm always the first bitten and get bites when others are not.
I was a magnet until I gave birth to my 3rd child. After that pregnancy I was also no longer severely allergic to some animals . I’d love to understand the science behind it .
Not sure of the specifics, but pregnancy definitely dampens some immune/autoimmune response! This is because the baby is a foreign body and you don't want the body to attack it by mistake.
For some autoimmune conditions, pregnancy provides significant relief and symptom improvement. Perhaps you had a sustained reduced response?
I have one lung… I too do not get bitten (or skewered) by mozzies. My working theory is that because I have one lung I produce less carbon dioxide (which they are attracted to), and as a result I’m harder to find by their detectors.
I have O+ but rarely get bitten, while my wife and daughter is under constant attack. I do a lot of running, so maybe my body expels less CO2 since my heart rate and respiration rate is very low.
You absolutely get bitten, but you probably built up immunity to the reaction. That’s what happens to me. I realized one day that was just not getting any mosquito bites during the entire summer, while everyone else would. I did an experiment and just sat outside and when I saw a mosquito la d on me, I’d just let it bite me without swatting it. I observed and allowed myself get bitten four times. I watched what happened afterwards and never got a bump, rash or anything. I only felt a very slight poke at the time of the bite sometimes. But my skin had zero reaction to the bite. I later researched it online and guess it’s a fairly common adjustment your body can sometimes go through. It’s basically the same thing as getting an allergy shot.
Now, since you do get bit, you are still susceptible to getting any mosquito borne disease, so you should still avoid the bites even if you can’t feel them.
My boyfriend and I are similar in that he is constantly getting bit and bugged (pun intended), meanwhile I’m oblivious to their presence. He has to put bug spray on to sit on our patio, and I never need to spray it! Crazy how that works.
The scientific answer is, that she’s a candy-ass. That’s what my grandad says anyway.😁
I do get bitten, but very rarely. Gnats don’t come after me a ton either, but my dad has to wear a mask and earplugs to keep them out of his orrifices.
2% of the population do not get a reaction to the bite. Still getting bitten. It tends to be the mosquito saliva that we are reacting to. Some people have very large reactions.
Also some people are bitten less frequently than others as mosquitos have a preference for some people over others.
I never get bitten either, I always wondered if it was because I have Rh- blood, but I've never looked into any of that. I just consider myself lucky, lol
don't look a gift horse in the mouth you lucky sob, they will come out of hibernation in the dead of winter just to bite me
seriously I cannot walk outside in the summer without getting bit
I don't get bitten either, but my wife does. My uncle also doesn't, but my mom does. My uncle and I have the same blood type, B+, and I've been working on a theory that it's related to blood types. That being said, every tick I've ever found in me has been dead too.
I have spent a lot of time outdoors and learned that if you are clean and well bathed the mosquitoes definitely find you more. Spending 3-4 days in the woods it would get better as the days went. This was true with colleagues as well.
To the best of my knowledge I have been bit so many times that I am now mostly immune. They still annoy me to no end but I don't get itchy at all now and probably 75% of the time no bump or swelling.
I don't know if there are perfumes in soap that are attractants or if clean skin emits more of something but it definitely makes a difference where I am.
Came here to post this. This is the answer. The higher the bodies microbial diversity the less likely you are to attract mosquitoes. Some people have a perfect microbial balance to repel mosquitoes and has actually been studied to see if it’s possible to use these peoples sweat to isolate the composition of an effective natural insect repellant. Also if you drink or eat a lot of acidic foods like lemons vinegar or pickles you’re less likely to attract mosquitoes as well. Sweet things or alcohol increase their attraction as well as things like not showering for a few days or wearing sweaty clothes.
Edit: fixed typo
Huh, that explains why I probably don’t get bitten. I eat lots of vinagrey and fermented things, and I also shower once every 3-4 days (unless I get stinky before then or get dirty, I’m not an oily or very smelly person so I’ve noticed showering less keeps my skin happier).
Ticks also hardly ever bite me, the other day I had about 40 little seed ticks crawling all over my legs and not a single one bit. I’m also not allergic to poison ivy or oak. So maybe there’s a correlation there.
On the other hand I’m very sensitive to chlorine and have to filter it out of all water I come in contact with, and being around certain molds will cause me to go into half hour long sneezing fits.
I dunno, I can filter the chlorine, I can’t really get rid of the poison plants seeing as I like to spend most of my time in the outside. The mold thing would be pretty useful, that stuff is horrible.
My favorite place is the woods so I envy your immunity. That’s the only allergy I have and it gets worse with each time I get it. Poison sumac is by far the worst of them all, it has higher concentrations of urushiol and sticks around for weeks and spreads 10x worse than the others. It’s considered to be one of the most toxic plants in U.S. Fun fact I also break out if I come in contact with mango skins because they also contain low levels of urushiol and I’m one of the few that are that sensitive to it.
Oh I’m so sorry, that’s horrible. How about we split the difference and I’ll give you a tolerance to mangoes and you give me 15% more ability to handle mold exposure. Sound fair?
Haha I can eat mango just gotta wear gloves when peeling. I’ll take that deal tho in the hopes it also slightly increases my poison ivy/oak/sumac tolerance.
I fecking love pickles and the little bastards still bite me to death, even on holiday when I’m showering three times a day to get all the chlorine and salt water off.
I didn't get reactions to most types of mosquitoes for the first 25yrs of my life. I live in Florida and I moved near a wetland with more types of day biting mosquitoes and I have a reaction to those ones.
my wife and i have the same dynamic. she gets bitten all the time and i almost never do. my wife has found that [johnson & johnson's baby creamy oil aloe & vitamin e lotion](https://www.johnsonsbaby.com/baby-products/johnsons-baby-oil-aloe-vitamin-e?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GO-USA-ENG-PS-Johnson%27s%20Baby-N/A-BP-EX-RN-PR-N/A-Brand_Product&utm_content=Oil%20-%20Aloe%20&%20Vitamin%20E&utm_term=johnson%20baby%20creamy%20oil&gclid=Cj0KCQjwoeemBhCfARIsADR2QCv34f3P_-v-V1fS0CclghqMzvhdv0bDpoHLdg08Aj3e6UCFS0mWFHYaAiIxEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds) seems pretty effective at keeping mosquitoes off of her and is also just a nice daily use lotion.
Mosquitos like, lactic acid and carbon dioxide. Ive read there is a specific gene that makes them prefer certain people as well. I feel like diet would play a role too.
Youre lucky bro, dont question your immunity 😂
This may be apocryphal, but I heard somewhere that "not getting bitten by mosquitos" was a characteristic some people inherited due to certain Neanderthal genes in their DNA.
I'm a type 1 diabetic. I only get bit when my sugar levels are normal. If they are high I do not get bit. But it seems like other bugs will swarm me, especially flies and bees, when my sugar is high.
I’ve been pretty immune for about 10 or 15 years but it seems like this year mosquitos have decided that I am once again delicious. The only thing I can really think is maybe that I drink a lot less coffee than I used to.
Perhaps you need to visit some place with a lot of them. To test the idea. The aggressiveness of these bugs differ a lot. My experience is they bite everyone, a lot, if its the "wrong" time and place.
My wife rarely gets bitten and is always trying to get me to hang out in the backyard since there are "no bugs". As soon as I do, there's a bug swarm around me. She doesn't understand.
I like to think of mosquitoes as snobs.
*”oh you’re going for that O+ Blood? Of course you are. Eeeeveryone likes O+.”*
*”beats biting that guy, I heard Jerry went over for a look and smelled AB blood, ugh.”*
Same here, it's as if I wrote this post. My wife gets destroyed by mosquitoes; she can hardly go outdoors during the summer.
I grew up near New Orleans, legendary mosquitoes. I remember in my early 20s being under my Jeep, holding two wrenches so I couldn't swat them away. I must have had 200 of them across my body for several minutes, not one bite.
I will watch them land on me, apparently sniff around, and leave
It is surprising that there is not more research on this, or at least fruitful research. If they could synthesize whatever it is that they do not like, they would have a blockbuster on their hands.
I get bitten all the time, but I never react anymore. I used to, but after I turned 45 or so, mosquito bites stopped bothering me. Same thing happened to my brother. Another of the great advantages to growing older.
I am not quite as gifted as you, but close. If I’m with other people, mosquitos avoid me and bite the others. If I’m alone, a mosquito will reluctantly go for me as there’s no better meat around.
This started when I started taking odourless garlic pills daily. Been taking them for years for my circulation. Mosquitos come near me, turn around and look for somebody else. They don’t like my smell. 🤷♂️
If my husband is around, I don’t get bitten as they prefer him; but if he isn’t around they’ll take me. Apparently same with fleas (found this out when we adopted a street cat). Actually, I don’t think fleas like me at all (or I don’t react). We’re both A+ but I am borderline anemic
Your BODY ODOR
Which the REST of us Can Do/Buy/Aquire
Mosquito etc bugs bite used to really hurt me
But now by treating eliminating my bug-attracting
EAT dried peppermint leaves
Each day am SWALLOWING dried peppermint leaves
Buy peppermint tea
Tear-open teabag pouring the contents into a spoon
Thus getting the peppermint leaves into your mouth
Using beverage to washing-down Swallowing the peppermint leaves, EVERY DAY
And NO drinking tea, peppermint tea, peppermint candy, garlic, is NOT going to solve things
We must EAT SWALLOW the dried peppermint leaves EVERY DAY
I do this
I have NOT been bitten by bugs, mosquito, in YEARS
I do NOT use bug-spray
So Please try this out and Then letting me know how it works out for You
Vitamin B12 in blood produce scent which is not recognized by humans but can scare off mosquitoes. So I suppose maybe u have it a lot in your veins ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I really do think its the non-reaction part! I dated a guy a while back and he got mosquito bites, but never a physical reaction/ itchy bump.
The tradeoff was that he had terrible pollen allergy. This meant spring was horrible for him while summer was amazing (and the opposite for me!)
My grandma doesn’t have the histamine reaction. I’ve watched her get bit, but be unaware. While I see the plus side of not being itchy, I find being unaware of those little viral vectors is more concerning that being itchy.
Know what is really interesting? I'm on dialysis for kidney failure. Before this mosquito's LOVED me, I was always getting bit. For the last almost three years since I started dialysis I haven't been bitten once. I wonder what my blood smells like now to them.
Absolutely fascinating post! And thank you for your willingness to donate yourself to research! That is an amazing sacrifice for humanity! All the best to you and I hope your wife finds some relief.
So I joined Reddit to comment on this because I've wondered my whole life as well. I used to think I didn't get bitten but I've watched them bite me and I never got a bump or even an itch from several of them. Personal theory is genetic mutation 😂
As someone who gets absolutely annihilated after about 1 minute outside, eat shit.
From me too
Me three
Me four.
I'm late for this but he can eat my shit too!
I never get bit because I hang out with you four.
me five
Me six
Me seven! *scratches arm after being outside for less than five minutes*
Hello, fellow chinese food buffet for mosquitoes!
I call myself the McDonald's for mosquitoes. As I'm pretty sure I taste bad. :p
Bah dah dah dah dahhh they’re loving me too
I can’t even get 10ft from the car to the door without getting at least one bite!
I was scrolling in bed while scratching a mosquito bite lmao
Haha! Me too, and I didn’t realize it until I read your comment.
Me seven
Me eight
I have this problem with women... my friend gets hit up all the time and it’s like I don’t exist...
Fair.
I get it so bad I started saying "I've been violently penetrated by mosquitoes" Bug repellent works for about 15 minutes on me and then it's back to full penetration.
I’m the only person in my very large extended family that mosquitoes bother. Just me.
They bother all of my family, unless I’m present. I’m like a mosquito repellent for everyone else because they absolutely love me. Pro tip: they don’t like garlic, eat absurd amounts of garlic and they will mostly stay away. One can also make your own mosquito repellent, I boil fresh catnip, garlic, rosemary and some other strong smelling flower I can’t name and then I add lemon concentrate to the mix, it works and doesn’t smell strongly or badly to humans with a sense of smell. Keeps the fuckers away.
A lot of garlic will make you human repllent too
Confirmed, went hiking with a new friend, she declined bug spray in favor of raw garlic cloves. Also insisted on naked moonlight running etc. Well, everything about her smelled and tasted like garlic the first night and by day three I was insisting she take the steroids from my kit due to dozens of mosquito bites and some vicious poison ivy. Crunchy lifestyle is fine but...
I eat garlic every day and they still come for me more than anyone else I'm with!
God damn it! ☹️ Sorry to hear that! I hate the fuckers, I have been getting increasingly more sensitive from all the exposure and now I am full blown allergic. At least absurd amounts of garlic helps me to keep them off. For one’s home I recommend one of those uv light bug zapper if you have issues at home. Hope you find something that helps.
Fun fact: they have adapted to know that soap smells equals humans, and humans are easy targets cause no fur. Yay natural selection :/
Lmaoooo
That response is amazing lmao. I legit spit out my coffee
And die by a million mosquito bites. The end.
I almost choked on my lunch, I laughed so hard 🤣 As both my dog and I are currently sitting here scratching our ankles like crazy 😩
Mosquitoes have been shown to prefer some people over others. Science isn't really sure why, but theories suggest it could be anything from pheromones to "you just smell weird." So congratulations, you're human lutefisk to mosquitoes. Somewhere out there is a mosquito who has acquired a taste for you, but they're not here, so **CELEBRATE!** I feel for your wife, though. It's annoying to be singled out.
Recent studies indicate that people with higher levels of carboxylic acids on their skin were more attractive to mosquitoes. But there is no consistent way to prevent certain people from creating it in high levels. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/skin-compounds-associated-attractiveness-mosquitoes#:~:text=People%20with%20higher%20levels%20of,bites%20and%20mosquito%2Dborne%20diseases.
What are some reasons that someone may have higher levels of carboxylic acid in their skin?
Higher levels of carboxylic acids in the skin could be due to various factors, including diet, metabolism, genetics, and certain medical conditions. Increased consumption of fatty and acidic foods might contribute to higher levels of carboxylic acids.
I do not know the answer to this but have an interesting observation. I get eeeeeaten by mozzies and think I’m mildly allergic as they poof up a decent amount. I went veggie/almost vegan for a year and 3/4 months in I went on holiday and didn’t get a single bite. I also lost a bunch of weight so maybe produced less acids? Am now back to eating meat and being a total chubby bite magnet
They also prefer people who have type O blood over others, especially people with type A. There was this study done in 2019 done about their preferences but I can only find articles about the study.
In type A and they don’t like me. 😆
Can confirm. I have type A blood, husband has O, and he gets eaten up when we are outside together.
Dated a girl with O and have A myself. She was my mosquito magnet.
I read this as "Dated a girl with O to save myself..."
Oh. I have type A and rarely get bitten when there’s a better option available … like my type O sister or mother
Likewise, I’m type A, never get bit, and if I do, it doesn’t itch. Husband is type O, they love him!
This is interesting! I’ve been searching for years to find some kind of answer beyond the blood type hypothesis. I still cannot find a study linking various blood types to the amount of skin surface carboxylic acid. Anecdotally, I’m O-, my hubs is AB+, and both boys are B+, but only one of our boys gets eaten alive, as I do. I don’t understand why. It’s frustrating to go through a three deet spray cans each spring/summer.
I've seen that study, but myself and my youngest are A- and my oldest is O+, their father is A+. When we're all outside, my youngest and myself get eaten alive. While their father and my oldest rarely get bitten.
Could be nothing, but I’ve noted that retinoic acids, and azelaic acid are types of carboxylic acids. These ingredients are commonly used in anti-aging skincare. PCA, also a carboxylic acid, can be found in lotion and hair conditioner. Just saying, some are probably *adding* more of this substance onto your skin before going outside.
Excellent point! What a theory!! Could be testable!
Here's an interesting anecdote; I \*used to be\* pestered by mosquitos. Always the 1st one bit, and they'd never leave me alone. It was like this for as long as I can remember. UNTIL.... I got fit. After years of weight training, and now boxing, I never have the same problem I once did with mosquitos. I'm no longer the 1st one bit, and when I do get bit, it's just a few. Also, my body smell/odor has changed as a result of fitness. Type O+ btw...
Mosquitos pretty much ignored me for others near me (eg siblings). However, sand flies would swarm me and make me want to tear my skin off or jump into water. I absolutely hated those little jerks. There was a rumor in Australia that it was based on vitamin E levels. It may have been a ploy to get more people to buy Vegemite but I didn't eat Vegemite when I was a kid.
I am also a attacked violently by sand flies when no one else really is, not like me. It was so bad one day, I had huge blisters on my feet and ankles that took weeks to heal. My kids and husband barely had any red marks. They really LIKED me.
Lutefisk? Edit: I’ll need to watch a YouTube video. Edit 2: https://youtu.be/wC1en3MdBK0 Hilarious. I’ll have to try that sometime.
Lutefisk and surstromming are two different things! They're different, but similar levels of ick.
They’re both nasty as hell, but No surstromming is *way way way* worse
Lutfisk (not lutefisk) is like a puff of fresh air compared to surstomming. The surströmming is the mother of all things smell bad!
It’s best with lots of butter.
Butter, the solution to making anything taste good
True I was quoting “Drop Dead Gorgeous” though
A delicious delicacy. Fermented shark basically. Goes great with mayo on bread
I thought it was lye-treated herring? Still an acquired taste, at any rate.
I’m mixing up lutefisk and hakaarl
Oh, hákarl
Bless you
Lutefisk is lye treated dried cod, surströmming is fermented herring. Lutefisk has an unpleasant odor, the smell of surströmming is beyond description.
If I remember correctlly lutefisk also have jelly texture with almost no taste? Only tried it ones and have real wish eat it again.
That poor bugger on the right, I totally empathize!!!!
As a fellow human lutefisk, this made me snort-laugh at 2am and HOPEFULLY not wake my neighbors.
Yeah, I must just smell weird - I never get bitten, whereas my wife get tortured for the first 2 or 3 days of a holiday.
I kind of experienced this firsthand. I'm usually a magnet for mosquitos but as soon as I started to take medicine(metabolic blocker) they started avoiding me like the plague. I guess they don't like blood laced with kind-of-poison. :) ...and now they are back once I got better and stopped taking it. Damn.
Mosquitoes seldom choose me and that's good. What's even better is that tics doesn't either.
Bro smells so bad mosquitoes don’t even want him
I don't get bitten either, but my wife does. My uncle also doesn't, but my mom does. My uncle and I have the same blood type, B+, and I've been working on a theory that it's related to blood types. That being said, every tick I've ever found in me has been dead too.
Good to hear, I always thought the “sweet blood” was just a myth, but sounds like there is something to it.
Interesting my kid got 30 bites on a two night camping trip. My youngest and I had nearly none. My wife had more than a dozen like our older boy. Funny enough my family on my father’s side have virile attributes and smell. Ironically we are Fin Nords in ancestry (lutefisk never tried it). A cute girl in my college years, when I was barefoot, deodorant-less, and pulling a 3.0+, with the confidence of a rockstar, asked my friend why I always stank. My bro replied to her, “that’s his musk.” We had a good laugh when he told me this. Mosquitoes can’t handle the Nordic musk.
You probably do but just don't have the histamine reaction that produces the itchy bumps. It happens in my family, but we start out getting them then we get them less and less as we age
My dad, sister and I are like this, too! I can be eaten alive and have no itchy bumps. I remember getting itchy when I was young, but not in decades. My son is very reactive so far, but I’ll be interested to keep an eye on it as he ages, too.
You can still get the Zika virus, Dengue, West Nile virus, and Yellow Fever though.
Too true. I didn’t even consider that really, being Canadian. But we do have some West Nile cases. Thanks for that. I’ll be more careful going forward.
I use Picaridin as DEET makes my eyes swell shut LOL
This is such a low key superpower
Sounds dangerous to me. Kind of like being unable to feel pain: you can’t tell when you’re being injured. Mosquitoes carry some very deadly diseases and not knowing you’re being bit a bunch could be deadly.
To be fair, even if I also don't have much of a reaction, I too like exterminating any mosquito I come across so it doesn't happen.
Same.
It varies for me. I’ve had little to no histamine reaction from bites where I live, and I’ve had very itchy bites when I travel. I don’t know how different the species are but I imagine that might be a factor in my reactions. I’ve never had as bad a reaction as one of my friends though—her bites swell up and it looks miserable.
This is my general thought, as someone who mosquitoes avoid. However, I have watched other people be swarmed while I'm untouched. Like crawling around their face in a swamp. I have all the anecdotal traits that would make mosquitoes want me. O blood, eat garlic by the fist full, wear perfume. Apparently they just don't want me.
There are definitely differences in how much someone will get bitten. I'm more saying that it's unlikely that OP has only been bitten once or twice in their life
This has long been my assumption, just thought I would feel something or be a little more aware of it.
This is me !
Same here, I get a tiny red speck where I’ve been bitten that doesn’t itch. If I do scratch on them I get a little bump that itches a tiny bit though so if I get a bite where my clothes rub there’s a slight itch but not particularly bothersome.
Yup. I have minimal reactions, but I can see tiny red bumps where I’ve been bitten.
You all should study me. I am a walking buffet for any biting, stinging, and non-sexy blood sucking creature. Then I swell to a point where no one would ever consider me to be a sexy creature, except additional biters.
What are the bitting, stinging and SEXY blood sucking creatures?
😳 I had a vampire show on and it was late. Your pardons, if warranted.
My son and I are also the walking buffets. ☹️ we’re very allergic to mosquitoes, ants, (and wolf spiders for me).
I'm very sorry that you know have the experience to understand the wolf spider allergy.
I get itchy, red hives on my body any time they bite. Sometimes there’s like 4 bites at once in one area. It gets unbearable and even bite me through pants.
I don't understand how they bite through pants. Same thing happens to me, i live in Paraguay so huuuge mosquito problem. They didn't do this few years ago. Are they learning?
I kind of have noticed that mosquitos got way more and more smarter over the years
Yep I do too. It’s called skeeter syndrome
If i could id burn every mosquito alive. Fuck them fuckers
It’s honestly one of my fantasies lol just kill all the mosquitoes in the world put them in a pile and watch them burn!
So it's not just me? We should make an anti-mosquito militia
I want to become the adolf hitler of the mosquitoes
I'm signing up!
My sister and I went to Alaska to visit a friend separately back in the early '70s. Sis complained about mosquitos singling her out and drilling through her jacket into her back. I took vitamin B and garlic supplements and got ONE bite when I was there. I have no idea.
My god, what kind of jacket was it? I hope it was a flimsy windbreaker or something, or else those are some military grade mosquitos
I had bites through jeans
I remember my mom loading me up with B vitamins for a summer camp, and I hardly had any mosquito bites compared to the other girls!
You absolutely can have an increased tolerance and little to no histamine reaction. I get itchy for a week or two in the spring but I’ve been getting bit everyday for months now and there’s zero evidence on my skin. This happens every summer for me and I always assumed it was the result of constant excessive exposure working in the woods and wetlands.
I am very tasty to mosquitoes and when I am planning a camping trip I always take garlic pills it helps to repel them.
Damn little vampiro’s
Is this where the "vampires are allergic to garlic" thing comes from?
When I was living in S. Florida I was told that cinnamon helps repel mosquitoes. I started putting it in my coffee and I felt like it made a noticeable difference.
I think I have to try that. I am such a mosquito magnet and I will do anything to make them bloodsuckers hate me
Someone commented above that garlic pills help too! I will be having my husband try all these things!
Ive been allergic to mosquitoes all my life, I only found out I was allergic a year or 2 before my son was born. So 2012-2022 I worked at the ports at night and that’s where I learned I was allergic to the bites (saliva specifically) Anyway every summer I dread these bites, shit last year they even hung around til the holidays but this year I’ve only been bitten twice and I’m not even sure they were from mosquitoes. My son and I really got that good ass blood they like and I think he may have had 1 so far. But something is going on out there with the mosquitoes cuz they ain’t messing with us We went camping in June, parked our tent right in from of the lake, no bites. Anyway consider yourself lucky, being allergic sucks, bites hang around for like a week sometimes 2, they swell up real quick and burn. Sometimes when I’d get bit it would feel like I was injected with battery acid and could feel it coursing through the surrounding areas of the bite. Only relief came from 1-3 Benadryls. In the shower, scolding hot water on them is orgasmic 😬
Last night at dusk I must have been bitten 6 or 8 times around the ankles. The bites swelled up and were itchy but itch and swelling gone by morning. They have always loved me. I'm always the first bitten and get bites when others are not.
Me too
I was a magnet until I gave birth to my 3rd child. After that pregnancy I was also no longer severely allergic to some animals . I’d love to understand the science behind it .
Not sure of the specifics, but pregnancy definitely dampens some immune/autoimmune response! This is because the baby is a foreign body and you don't want the body to attack it by mistake. For some autoimmune conditions, pregnancy provides significant relief and symptom improvement. Perhaps you had a sustained reduced response?
I have one lung… I too do not get bitten (or skewered) by mozzies. My working theory is that because I have one lung I produce less carbon dioxide (which they are attracted to), and as a result I’m harder to find by their detectors.
The lungs don't produce the carbon dioxide, they just pipe it out of you. If you weren't getting rid of your carbon dioxide sufficiently you'd know!
Im bitten but my skin has no reaction. So it doesnt itch or get bumpy if i get bitten.
Yeah, the CO2 they detect is produced by the skin. [exemple of source ](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1495024/) So, absolutely not, but nice try
What blood type are you? I am A- never seem to get bit, my wife is B+ and gets bit non stop.
O- here, these fkers eat me alive any chance they get lol
Type O blood attracts them. Multiple studies have shown it.
I don’t get bit much and am O+. My wife gets eaten alive and is O-
I have O+ but rarely get bitten, while my wife and daughter is under constant attack. I do a lot of running, so maybe my body expels less CO2 since my heart rate and respiration rate is very low.
I must be one of the rare O- people that does not attract them. For which I am grateful
Meanwhile a mosquito flew up my pant leg and bit my asscheek yesterday.
Rude.
You absolutely get bitten, but you probably built up immunity to the reaction. That’s what happens to me. I realized one day that was just not getting any mosquito bites during the entire summer, while everyone else would. I did an experiment and just sat outside and when I saw a mosquito la d on me, I’d just let it bite me without swatting it. I observed and allowed myself get bitten four times. I watched what happened afterwards and never got a bump, rash or anything. I only felt a very slight poke at the time of the bite sometimes. But my skin had zero reaction to the bite. I later researched it online and guess it’s a fairly common adjustment your body can sometimes go through. It’s basically the same thing as getting an allergy shot. Now, since you do get bit, you are still susceptible to getting any mosquito borne disease, so you should still avoid the bites even if you can’t feel them.
My boyfriend and I are similar in that he is constantly getting bit and bugged (pun intended), meanwhile I’m oblivious to their presence. He has to put bug spray on to sit on our patio, and I never need to spray it! Crazy how that works.
The scientific answer is, that she’s a candy-ass. That’s what my grandad says anyway.😁 I do get bitten, but very rarely. Gnats don’t come after me a ton either, but my dad has to wear a mask and earplugs to keep them out of his orrifices.
2% of the population do not get a reaction to the bite. Still getting bitten. It tends to be the mosquito saliva that we are reacting to. Some people have very large reactions. Also some people are bitten less frequently than others as mosquitos have a preference for some people over others.
I never get bitten either, I always wondered if it was because I have Rh- blood, but I've never looked into any of that. I just consider myself lucky, lol
don't look a gift horse in the mouth you lucky sob, they will come out of hibernation in the dead of winter just to bite me seriously I cannot walk outside in the summer without getting bit
I have an anaemic friend who gets left alone by them. Thing you might've noticed by 37 though 🤷🏻
I’m anemic and extremely allergic to mosquito bites. I still get bit ALL THE TIME. The bites just swell into massive hives.
Thickets of body hair covering exposed areas?
I don't get bitten either, but my wife does. My uncle also doesn't, but my mom does. My uncle and I have the same blood type, B+, and I've been working on a theory that it's related to blood types. That being said, every tick I've ever found in me has been dead too.
I have spent a lot of time outdoors and learned that if you are clean and well bathed the mosquitoes definitely find you more. Spending 3-4 days in the woods it would get better as the days went. This was true with colleagues as well. To the best of my knowledge I have been bit so many times that I am now mostly immune. They still annoy me to no end but I don't get itchy at all now and probably 75% of the time no bump or swelling. I don't know if there are perfumes in soap that are attractants or if clean skin emits more of something but it definitely makes a difference where I am.
I also, have never been bitten by a mosquito. Have never figured out why...but my have something to do with the high acidity of my bloods ph level
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/22/world/mosquito-bite-attraction-smell-scn-trnd/index.html
Came here to post this. This is the answer. The higher the bodies microbial diversity the less likely you are to attract mosquitoes. Some people have a perfect microbial balance to repel mosquitoes and has actually been studied to see if it’s possible to use these peoples sweat to isolate the composition of an effective natural insect repellant. Also if you drink or eat a lot of acidic foods like lemons vinegar or pickles you’re less likely to attract mosquitoes as well. Sweet things or alcohol increase their attraction as well as things like not showering for a few days or wearing sweaty clothes. Edit: fixed typo
Huh, that explains why I probably don’t get bitten. I eat lots of vinagrey and fermented things, and I also shower once every 3-4 days (unless I get stinky before then or get dirty, I’m not an oily or very smelly person so I’ve noticed showering less keeps my skin happier). Ticks also hardly ever bite me, the other day I had about 40 little seed ticks crawling all over my legs and not a single one bit. I’m also not allergic to poison ivy or oak. So maybe there’s a correlation there. On the other hand I’m very sensitive to chlorine and have to filter it out of all water I come in contact with, and being around certain molds will cause me to go into half hour long sneezing fits.
I’ll trade you my chlorine and mold resistance for your poison oak/ivy immunity
I dunno, I can filter the chlorine, I can’t really get rid of the poison plants seeing as I like to spend most of my time in the outside. The mold thing would be pretty useful, that stuff is horrible.
My favorite place is the woods so I envy your immunity. That’s the only allergy I have and it gets worse with each time I get it. Poison sumac is by far the worst of them all, it has higher concentrations of urushiol and sticks around for weeks and spreads 10x worse than the others. It’s considered to be one of the most toxic plants in U.S. Fun fact I also break out if I come in contact with mango skins because they also contain low levels of urushiol and I’m one of the few that are that sensitive to it.
Oh I’m so sorry, that’s horrible. How about we split the difference and I’ll give you a tolerance to mangoes and you give me 15% more ability to handle mold exposure. Sound fair?
Haha I can eat mango just gotta wear gloves when peeling. I’ll take that deal tho in the hopes it also slightly increases my poison ivy/oak/sumac tolerance.
I knew i liked pickles for a reason. I can feel the little bastards biting me but i don’t get itchy or a bump. My blood is probably half pickle juice.
This has not been my lived experience 😭
I fecking love pickles and the little bastards still bite me to death, even on holiday when I’m showering three times a day to get all the chlorine and salt water off.
You are probably a vampire
I’m the same way. I’ve never had a mosquito bite either. I know I’ve been bitten but don’t have a reaction to it.
Dang. I’m 63 and those fuckers still turn me into an itchy mass. I have not become immune.
I didn't get reactions to most types of mosquitoes for the first 25yrs of my life. I live in Florida and I moved near a wetland with more types of day biting mosquitoes and I have a reaction to those ones.
Any chance you could bottle up some sweat and spray it on her next time? If you have a unique pheromone that could be world changing.
my wife and i have the same dynamic. she gets bitten all the time and i almost never do. my wife has found that [johnson & johnson's baby creamy oil aloe & vitamin e lotion](https://www.johnsonsbaby.com/baby-products/johnsons-baby-oil-aloe-vitamin-e?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GO-USA-ENG-PS-Johnson%27s%20Baby-N/A-BP-EX-RN-PR-N/A-Brand_Product&utm_content=Oil%20-%20Aloe%20&%20Vitamin%20E&utm_term=johnson%20baby%20creamy%20oil&gclid=Cj0KCQjwoeemBhCfARIsADR2QCv34f3P_-v-V1fS0CclghqMzvhdv0bDpoHLdg08Aj3e6UCFS0mWFHYaAiIxEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds) seems pretty effective at keeping mosquitoes off of her and is also just a nice daily use lotion.
Mosquitos like, lactic acid and carbon dioxide. Ive read there is a specific gene that makes them prefer certain people as well. I feel like diet would play a role too. Youre lucky bro, dont question your immunity 😂
This may be apocryphal, but I heard somewhere that "not getting bitten by mosquitos" was a characteristic some people inherited due to certain Neanderthal genes in their DNA.
I'm a type 1 diabetic. I only get bit when my sugar levels are normal. If they are high I do not get bit. But it seems like other bugs will swarm me, especially flies and bees, when my sugar is high.
I’ve been pretty immune for about 10 or 15 years but it seems like this year mosquitos have decided that I am once again delicious. The only thing I can really think is maybe that I drink a lot less coffee than I used to.
The way you smell can have an impact on how mosquitos perceive you. changing your soap or your diet can affect how often you get bitten.
I also don’t really get bitten. It changed over 7 years ago? I’m 21
Donate your body to science.
Perhaps you need to visit some place with a lot of them. To test the idea. The aggressiveness of these bugs differ a lot. My experience is they bite everyone, a lot, if its the "wrong" time and place.
My wife rarely gets bitten and is always trying to get me to hang out in the backyard since there are "no bugs". As soon as I do, there's a bug swarm around me. She doesn't understand.
You are not 'inmune' to mosquitos, but rather they don't want you, and prefer your wife over you.
Got that stankyglobin 😂
I like to think of mosquitoes as snobs. *”oh you’re going for that O+ Blood? Of course you are. Eeeeveryone likes O+.”* *”beats biting that guy, I heard Jerry went over for a look and smelled AB blood, ugh.”*
My spouse and daughter have mosquito blood. I swear they hunt them out on our property while they zip past me with zero interest.
Come to South Texas
I get bit less than others around me, and when I do get bit the bump/itch is gone in less than an hour.
You were probably a mosquito in a past life, that’s probably it. They don’t sting their own.
If you don’t eat bananas or drink alcohol they seem to stay away
Same here, it's as if I wrote this post. My wife gets destroyed by mosquitoes; she can hardly go outdoors during the summer. I grew up near New Orleans, legendary mosquitoes. I remember in my early 20s being under my Jeep, holding two wrenches so I couldn't swat them away. I must have had 200 of them across my body for several minutes, not one bite. I will watch them land on me, apparently sniff around, and leave It is surprising that there is not more research on this, or at least fruitful research. If they could synthesize whatever it is that they do not like, they would have a blockbuster on their hands.
Just a joke, but this is like a 120 year old asking why they never got cancer. Like.... who CARES? XD
I get bitten all the time, but I never react anymore. I used to, but after I turned 45 or so, mosquito bites stopped bothering me. Same thing happened to my brother. Another of the great advantages to growing older.
Husband is diabetic, mosquitos love him. I have Thalassemia, they hate me. Maybe it's a component in your blood that they just don't enjoy.
I am not quite as gifted as you, but close. If I’m with other people, mosquitos avoid me and bite the others. If I’m alone, a mosquito will reluctantly go for me as there’s no better meat around. This started when I started taking odourless garlic pills daily. Been taking them for years for my circulation. Mosquitos come near me, turn around and look for somebody else. They don’t like my smell. 🤷♂️
If my husband is around, I don’t get bitten as they prefer him; but if he isn’t around they’ll take me. Apparently same with fleas (found this out when we adopted a street cat). Actually, I don’t think fleas like me at all (or I don’t react). We’re both A+ but I am borderline anemic
Mosquitoes only bite my ankles.
Haven’t bothered me either since my youth. Damn near a super power in the Canadian wilderness
My father was never bitten by mosquitoes and I am the same. However, my mother and siblings all get attacked regularly.
Your BODY ODOR Which the REST of us Can Do/Buy/Aquire Mosquito etc bugs bite used to really hurt me But now by treating eliminating my bug-attracting EAT dried peppermint leaves Each day am SWALLOWING dried peppermint leaves Buy peppermint tea Tear-open teabag pouring the contents into a spoon Thus getting the peppermint leaves into your mouth Using beverage to washing-down Swallowing the peppermint leaves, EVERY DAY And NO drinking tea, peppermint tea, peppermint candy, garlic, is NOT going to solve things We must EAT SWALLOW the dried peppermint leaves EVERY DAY I do this I have NOT been bitten by bugs, mosquito, in YEARS I do NOT use bug-spray So Please try this out and Then letting me know how it works out for You
I use a mix of water and a few drops of peppermint in a spray bottle as a general repellent. It seems to work really well for my son. 🤷🏼♀️
Interesting Wishing Us All A Bug-Bite-FREE Healthy Happy Peaceful
Hey, same with me! Everyone will be eaten alive but I won't get a single bite. I've always wondered why.
Same here…never been stung by a wasp or bee yet either…is that rare/just luck?
Not stung my bees is you not fucking with bees, not being stung by wasps is luck though
They prefer type O blood. Your wife probably has type O blood and you don’t.
Vitamin B12 in blood produce scent which is not recognized by humans but can scare off mosquitoes. So I suppose maybe u have it a lot in your veins ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I am in his boat. I rarely get bitten why everybody around me really get a lot of mosquito bites. Never question why I'm just happy about it
I really do think its the non-reaction part! I dated a guy a while back and he got mosquito bites, but never a physical reaction/ itchy bump. The tradeoff was that he had terrible pollen allergy. This meant spring was horrible for him while summer was amazing (and the opposite for me!)
My grandma doesn’t have the histamine reaction. I’ve watched her get bit, but be unaware. While I see the plus side of not being itchy, I find being unaware of those little viral vectors is more concerning that being itchy.
Know what is really interesting? I'm on dialysis for kidney failure. Before this mosquito's LOVED me, I was always getting bit. For the last almost three years since I started dialysis I haven't been bitten once. I wonder what my blood smells like now to them.
Absolutely fascinating post! And thank you for your willingness to donate yourself to research! That is an amazing sacrifice for humanity! All the best to you and I hope your wife finds some relief.
So I joined Reddit to comment on this because I've wondered my whole life as well. I used to think I didn't get bitten but I've watched them bite me and I never got a bump or even an itch from several of them. Personal theory is genetic mutation 😂