Scientists at a Dutch university set up a fun experiment at a music festival to figure out what makes some people more attractive to mosquitoes. About 500 festival-goers stuck their arms into special cages with hungry mosquitoes that could smell them but not bite them. The results showed that people who drank beer and had sex the night before were about 1.35 times more likely to attract mosquitoes. On the flip side, people who had recently washed themselves or used sunscreen were less appealing to the bugs.
This study was the biggest of its kind, though the researchers admit it wasn’t perfectly controlled since it happened at a festival. The findings could help us understand why mosquitoes choose certain people, which is important since these insects cause about 2.7 million deaths each year by spreading diseases like malaria and dengue fever.
Source: PopSci
