(dramatic orchestral music)
- If you're like most people
you hate mosquitoes right?
They're the Andy Dick of the insect world;
annoying and in many cases dangerous.
If we rate animals by the
number of deaths they cause
these little bloodsuckers top
the charts by a wide margin.
Due mainly to their transmission of
malaria and other harmful diseases.
And whether your next
mosquitoes bite causes
serious illness or intense frustration.
We can all agree right?
Mosquitoes are the worst.
But are some people immune
to mosquitoes bites?
First let's be clear mosquito
bites aren't actually bites at all.
when a mosquito lands on
you she uses her proboscis,
a long double-tubed mouth piece,
to pierce your skin and get
at the blood underneath.
Yes, she.
Every single mosquito
that has even bitten you
and ever will bite you has been female.
They bite you because they need a protein
in your blood to develop their eggs.
When a mosquito uses her antennae to sense
that sweet warm blood beneath your skin
and uses her proboscis to
pop into your capillaries,
one of those tubes injects saliva while
the other one withdraws the blood.
The saliva contains enzymes
that acts as a mild pain
killer and thins the
blood to prevent clotting.
Your body interprets these
enzymes as foreign invaders and
produces a histamine which is
like your body's local militia
Histamine binds to the
receptors in the bite area
dilating those local blood vessels.
This increased blood flow
summons more white blood cells
and when you get too much histamine
the bite area can swell and redden
creating what's called a wheal.
Yep, wheal. Word of the day.
As in rock me like a wagon wheal.
Spelled differently though.
Each person will react
to a bite differently
and your allergies will vary.
So, what makes a mosquito
choose a certain person?
There are a number of factors.
One of the biggest being
that there are more
than 3,000 known varieties of mosquitoes
and they're not all
looking for the same thing.
Smell, body, temperature and
genetics all play huge roles.
According to scientist
at Rotterdam Research,
each human body produces anywhere
from 300-400 distinct chemical odors.
Some of which are bug magnets
and others that might be bug repellent.
Research from a chemist
named Ulrich Bernier
shows that mosquitoes are particularly
fond of carbon dioxide.
It's released from exhalation
and from your skin.
As well as lactic acid which is present
on your skin after exercising.
Drinking beer, being
pregnant and being a bigger
person can all make you more
attractive to mosquitoes.
Diet and blood types surprisingly
don't seem to matter much.
Now everyone has these yummy
chemicals on their body
but it seems that people mosquitoes avoid
produce higher amounts of
repellent to chemicals.
A guy named Dr. James Logan from Rotterdam
set up this kind of weird
experiment to see if he
could find these all
important repellent chemicals.
His team separated people into two groups.
Mosquito favorites and
mosquito (inaudible)
They put these people in these
body-sized foil bags like
giant Hot Pockets for two hours
to collect their body odors
and then they analyze the
chemicals they collected.
And they hooked electrodes
up to the antennae of these
mosquitoes to see what the
bugs thought of each smell.
Their study, published in the
Journal of Medical Entomology,
sited two chemicals as
significantly repellent.
One called 6-Methyl-5-hepten-2-one
which apparently smells
of nail polish remover.
And another called Geridull Acetone
which has the nice kind of floral odor.
It's very pure one, very potpourri.
As of the recording today,
the race to use these and other chemicals
as a new super bug
repellent is in full swing.
If you're one of the local
mosquitoes favorite dishes
remember to keep some kind
of bug repellent with you
and to wear long sleeves and
pants if the weather permits.
Especially in areas of
the world where these bugs
carry diseases like
malaria or dengue fever.
So I suppose there is
a little bit of light
at the end of the
mosquito net tunnel here.
Some people do have a
chance at building up
a tolerance after repeated bites.
For others, however, the
allergy just gets worse.
So which are you?
Do mosquitoes flock to
you like white on rice?
Or do mosquitoes avoid
you like they avoid me?
Let me know in the comments.
Subscribe, share with
your friends, as always
try to keep most of your
blood inside of your body.
High-five me if we meet in person.
And stay tuned for more Brain Stuff.
