Poll: Do mosquitoes like you and what blood type are you?

[Rockskipper]

I don't know how to set up a real poll, so just answer however and someone at the National Health Institute will hopefully tally these results and make a huge breakthrough on moskie repellant. I'll start just to show everyone how to do this, as it's kind of complicated:

NO, Type A-

If you don't know your blood type, just make something up because statistics will throw a certain percentage of answers out anyway as being statistically insignificant.

 

[Reef&Ruins]

Not really and my blood type is red.

 

[fossana]

There is already scientific literature on the subject, including the role of blood type (HLA) and other factors. It also varies by mosquito species.

Differential attraction in mosquito–human interactions and implications for disease control

Mosquito-borne diseases are a major burden on human health worldwide and their eradication through vector control methods remains challenging. In particular, the success of vector control interventions for targeting diseases such as malaria is under threat, ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Relation between HLA genes, human skin volatiles and attractiveness of humans to malaria mosquitoes - PubMed

Chemical cues are considered to be the most important cues for mosquitoes to find their hosts and humans can be ranked for attractiveness to mosquitoes based on the chemical cues they emit. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes are considered to be involved in the regulation of human body odor and...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[scatman]

My blood type is O+. Mosquitoes bite me, but I do not swell up at the bite sites and they do not make me itch, thus I am able to ignore them for the most part. They do annoy me when I am trying to eat though.

 

[regehr]

I don't recall my blood type but mosquitoes are a lot less attracted to me than they were when I was younger. I used to get mobbed, now they sort of bother me but only when there are a lot of them. I credit this to years and years of drinking coffee and whisky -- little bastards are just getting poisoned at the point, I hope.

 

[Kmatjhwy]

Now don't know my blood type, but am not really bothered by mosquitoes that much. Have learned to tolerate them for mosquitoes is one form of life on Earth. But they generally don't bother me that much at all. Have learned to use those things they dislike, like the wind and campfire smoke and such against them. But the freaking Horse Flies can be worse though.

But worst time ever ever with mosquitoes was back in the summer of 2011 when the Yellowstone Country had been clobbered by snow the previous winter bigtime. I was near Two Ocean Pass and the mosquitoes were in the mega thousands and thousands. Anything since is nothing.

 

[futurafree]

As a child, I always had scars on my legs because I was bitten so much more than others. Even today, the people around me often aren't bitten because I'm taking the brunt of the swarm. One of those spit-in-a-tube DNA ancestry services recently told me I'm genetically predisposed to be bitten more than the average person. I'm O-, but I don't think that's the important part.

 

[Reef&Ruins]

Not really and my blood type is red.

All ya'll laughing at me for the red blood type, but it just means my blood contains heme (in hemoglobin) which has iron in it. As opposed to other organisms that have copper in their blood/blood-like substance and that means their color is more bluish. Hemocyanin.
Thank you for coming to my Ted-biochem talk.

 

[eyesup]

Yes, O-

My lifestyle has been altered by the existence of mosquitos. I wouldn't live where I do if they didn't bother me so much. Speaking to others about the cons of wetter geographic regions invariably brings them up at the top of the list.

 

[Janice]

They love me and I hate them. I swell and itch and whine a lot. My husband says they like me because I'm sweet. He's stoic and isn't bothered by them, so they've decided he's no fun and all come to me instead. Ugh.

I'm B+ which is rather disappointing to me. I want an A.

 

[futurafree]

This thread reminded me of articles and podcasts about radical new science aimed at eradicating formerly "tropical" diseases that have migrated north into the USA with climate change. In Google's project, they breed and infect hundreds of millions of mosquitoes with a bacterial infection, then use lasers/cameras and micro-puffs of air to segregate males and females (crazy technology!), then release the now-infertile males into the wild to breed with wild females. It works incredibly well for a year. Other companies are genetically modifying females whose offspring don't survive. They've done releases in California and Florida with great success, and are planning to export it to countries that really need it. Sadly, I think the high alpine lakes of California and Montana are low on the priority list.

 

[Rockskipper]

This thread reminded me of articles and podcasts about radical new science aimed at eradicating formerly "tropical" diseases that have migrated north into the USA with climate change. In Google's project, they breed and infect hundreds of millions of mosquitoes with a bacterial infection, then use lasers/cameras and micro-puffs of air to segregate males and females (crazy technology!), then release the now-infertile males into the wild to breed with wild females. It works incredibly well for a year. Other companies are genetically modifying females whose offspring don't survive. They've done releases in California and Florida with great success, and are planning to export it to countries that really need it. Sadly, I think the high alpine lakes of California and Montana are low on the priority list.

This needs to be carefully studied, as mosquitoes are a major food source for birds, many of which migrate north primarily to feed off them. We may hate them, but they do have an important ecological function.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

They bother me when I am alone, but when my wife is with they go after her more and seem to leave me alone. Obviously, I prefer to hike in mosquito country when she is with

No idea on blood types, though.

 

[Janice]

This needs to be carefully studied, as mosquitoes are a major food source for birds, many of which migrate north primarily to feed off them. We may hate them, but they do have an important ecological function.

Mosquitoes are a major food source for bats, too - perhaps 1000 eaten per night! I hate the effect they have on me but know how important they are in the food chain and do get concerned about efforts to eradicate or change them.

I'm B+ which is rather disappointing to me. I want an A.

And by the way, I was attempting to be funny about the B+ vs A. I think my joke fell flat...

 

[Rockskipper]

Mosquitoes are a major food source for bats, too - perhaps 1000 eaten per night! I hate the effect they have on me but know how important they are in the food chain and do get concerned about efforts to eradicate or change them.


And by the way, I was attempting to be funny about the B+ vs A. I think my joke fell flat...

Now that you point it out, it's funny, esp. since I'm an A- and thereby a step above, LOL.

(I'm too far away from school and grades for it to register unless pointed out, which is a GOOD thing. I still have a recurring nightmare where I'm in high school and trying to tell the teacher I already have a college degree and they won't listen. I actually liked school, so what it did to those who hated it is beyond my comprehension.)

 

[OwenM]

O+, the most common.
Mosquitoes don't bother me much. I do swell up when bitten, but the swelling goes away quickly.
I really only use repellant when the gnats are bad, as those do seem to like me quite a bit.
O is supposedly the type mosquitoes are most attracted to, but common sense says body/blood chemistry would be a factor(since it is with everything else).
Whatever. I'm not that concerned with the how and why, just happy they don't care for me!

 

[Jackson]

O+, and they go for me about as much as they do anyone else, as far as I can tell. And my mosquito bites itch about as much as anyone else's.

I hate actually being bitten by mosquitoes, but I love scratching mosquito bites. And I know that's a weird thing to like.

 

[kwc]

Mosquitoes are not the problem when hiking in the Adirondacks, it’s black flies in early season and deer flies after that.

 

[fossana]

I'll take mosquitoes over cedar gnats any day. I barely get welts anymore from mosquitoes; cedar gnat ones last for ~ a week.

 

[Yvonne]

They love me!!! And they take a kamikaze flight up toward me, gazillions of them!!!
Same with cedar gnats.
But I'm highly allergic to cedar gnats bites and always get a rash and blisters on my entire body when they bite me. The last time it was so bad I ended up in Instacare and needed high-dose anti histamines because my face was also swelling like crazy.

I don't know my blood type but I obviously have one they love.