As the weather warms up here in Texas and the plants start blooming, something less welcome will also happen: the return of the mosquitoes. At times I’ve believed that mosquitoes choose to bite me more than others, but I wasn’t sure if it was true.

A study released in late 2022 showed that mosquitoes do, in fact, prefer some people over others. Fortunately the study did not involve putting people into rooms full of mosquitoes and then counting the welts. Instead, the investigators asked study participants to wear sleeves on their arms that would collect material from the skin, and then observed how attracted mosquitoes were to those sleeves.

They found that one individual’s skin material was four times more attractive to mosquitoes than the second-most attractive person’s, and 100 times more attractive than the person the mosquitoes found least interesting. There is quite a lot of variation in how attractive mosquitoes find different people.

Unfortunately, as the article goes on to explain, hungry mosquitoes are quite good at finding humans to bite. What to do about it? Check out last year’s message on repellents.