Ever wonder why you get eaten alive by mosquitoes while your friends and family barely get a bite?
It's not just your imagination. Research shows roughly 20% of people consistently attract more mosquito bites than others.
Here's what makes some of us mosquito magnets.
Mosquitoes bite us for our blood, so it’s no surprise blood type can play a role. Studies found people with Type O blood get bitten more often than those with Type A (Type B falls in between). In one controlled test, mosquitoes landed on Type O subjects nearly twice as often as on Type A.
One major mosquito lure is carbon dioxide from our breath. Mosquitoes can detect the CO₂ we exhale from over 100 feet away. The more you exhale (larger body size or heavy breathing during exercise), the more “Here I am!” signals you send. Pregnant women, for example, exhale about 21% more CO₂, making them easier targets.
Your body odor matters too. Mosquitoes home in on a cocktail of chemicals in our sweat. Lactic acid, ammonia, and other substances that build up when you sweat can draw them in. Strenuous exercise releases more of these smelly compounds and raises your body heat, essentially painting a bullseye on you.
Body heat is another beacon for mosquitoes. These insects have infrared senses to find warm-blooded prey, so a warmer person can be more inviting. Even a small increase in skin temperature makes a difference. Pregnant women, for instance, run ~1°F hotter around the belly and tend to get about twice as many bites in experiments.
The skin microbiome: the community of bacteria on your skin also influences your bite risk. Research found that having a lot of one or two types of skin bacteria made people more attractive to mosquitoes, while having a greater diversity of skin microbes made them less attractive. This might be why ankles and feet (home to many odor-producing bacteria) get bitten so much.
Even what you wear can make a difference. Mosquitoes use sight as well as smell to locate hosts. A 2022 study found that mosquitoes were drawn to certain colors: they zoomed toward red, orange, and black objects, but largely ignored green, blue, and purple. Wearing light-colored clothing (think whites, khakis, pastels) might make you slightly harder for mosquitoes to spot compared to dark or bright red attire.
Enjoying a beer or two? That might make you a mosquito magnet as well. In one study, people who drank a single liter of beer attracted significantly more mosquito bites. Interestingly, the usual suspects like higher body temp or extra CO₂ in breath didn’t explain it. So alcohol intake, even just a beer could subtly boost your allure to mosquitoes, for reasons scientists don’t fully understand yet.
All these factors (and even genetics, which influences our body chemistry) explain why some folks are mosquito magnets. The good news is that understanding these attractants means we can fight back. So what can you do to make yourself less of a target?
Cover up with the right clothing. When possible, wear loose-fitting long sleeves and long pants to reduce exposed skin (mosquitoes can bite through tight clothing). Choose light colors that blend in (remember, mosquitoes love black and red).
Use effective repellents. Look for oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE) as the active ingredient (also known as PMD). A 32% lemon eucalyptus oil formula gave >95% protection for three hours in one study.
You can also use our favorite duo: Andiroba oil & Black Seed oil (Nigella Sativa) for a combined repellent and bite soother.
Try natural repellents. Certain plant-based oils can help keep mosquitoes at bay, though usually for shorter periods. For example, citronella oil (from lemongrass) can ward off mosquitoes for up to ~2 hours if formulated correctly, approaching DEET-level effectiveness. Peppermint, lemongrass, and cinnamon oils have also shown modest repellent effects in lab tests (one study found cinnamon oil repelled mosquitoes for about 2 hours). Just remember that most natural oils evaporate quickly, so you’ll need to reapply them more often.
And avoid gimmickslike ultrasonic devices science shows they don’t really work.
Eliminate mosquito-friendly conditions. Mosquitoes breed in standing water, so don’t give them a home. Regularly dump out or refresh any water in flowerpots, buckets, birdbaths, gutters, and puddles around your house. Even a bottle cap of water can harbor larvae! Make sure windows and doors have intact screens to keep mosquitoes outside, and use air conditioning if you have it (mosquitoes aren’t great indoors in cool, dry air).
If you’re outdoors, consider running a fan: the breeze not only physically pushes mosquitoes away but also disperses the CO₂ and odors you emit. And if you can, time your outings to avoid dawn and dusk when many mosquito species feed most.
In the end, some of us may naturally attract more mosquitoes, but we’re not helpless.
By understanding what draws these bloodsuckers in from the chemicals we emit to the colors we wear we can stack the deck against them. A few research backed tweaks can level the playing field and keep you from being the main course.
Enjoy the outdoors without becoming a mosquito buffet!