There are questions that are repeated over and over again in the history of humanity: Where do we come from? What are we? Where we go? And perhaps the most important… Why the hell do mosquitoes bite some people and not others?
Luckily, little by little, science is beginning to understand the reason for this last issue.
Why do the mosquitoes bite us? There are many theories and factors, but what seems clear is that the key piece of the enigma is the chemical compounds in the skin. They are (and not something else) the main responsible for the fact that mosquitoes are attracted to certain people.
“Mosquitoes are attracted to people based on various cues such as the carbon dioxide in our breath, olfactory cues such as volatiles produced by our metabolism or the microbiota of our skin, visual cues such as the clothes we wear, etc.,” explained Daniel Peach, from the University of Georgia, in Medical News Today.
¿Y? The good news, now, is that new research from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has managed to show that it is somewhat modifiable. And not with complex chemicals, high-tech devices, or genetic engineering. None of that: it is modifiable with soap.
Something smells good in Virginia. The researchers have carried out an analysis of the unique olfactory profiles of people and, what is more interesting, how these profiles interact with the different soaps on the market.
His initial idea is that since “volatiles emitted by plants are used by mosquitoes,” gels that incorporate these fragrances could increase the attractiveness of the people who use them. And that is precisely what they found.
Keys to bite us less. It is true that they have not found the total solution, but there is no doubt that the conclusions are “a compelling reason to change the soap that is used.” And it is that, even taking into account that the added odors mix with our olfactory profile and it is still difficult to make general predictions, everything seems to indicate that the greatest enemy of mosquitoes is coconut gel.
Of course, that is the fragrance that, according to the analysis, was most repulsive to mosquitoes and, in aggregate, deterred them the most.
The only one that dissuaded them, in fact. And that all contained lemon fragrance in their composition (something that, on paper, should scare them away). “These results indicate that rather than absolute amounts of a given chemical, it is the relative amounts that really matter.”
Therefore, it is necessary to continue “studying how these interactions are processed in the mosquito brain,” the researchers explained. But in the meantime, the coconut seems to be our best ally.
In Xataka | We have a new clue as to why mosquitoes only bite some: carboxylic acids
Image | JJ Harrison
