Why do some people have a natural repellent to mosquitos?

If mosquito's are all around the the world(mostly) why do some people have natural resistance to them and some don't. I ask this because there are some cases of west Nile going around and when me and the ladies and bros are chill-axing outside they get bit like its the cool thing to do for skeeters and i sit there with maybe one or two coming for me over hours of time, i thought i just had bad blood, but then i saw something on the sci channel that indicated that certain people make a natural skeeter repellent and some don't. So why is this if skeeters have been around forever that only some people have a resistance.

Mosquitos refuse to bite me... purely out of respect.

I have no clue why,but I rarely get bitten by mosquitos.
It's kind of strange,as my wife gets ate up at times,and I won't get a single bite.

reply to post by DocHolidaze


I have always wondered why when everyone around me is being munched on the mossies just land on me have a sniff and then go and bite someone else.
My dad has this and i have it but unfortunately my seven year old sun is not blessed with this handy defense mechanism.

I have the exact opposite problem. I'm allergic to mosquitoes but unfortunately they seem to find my blood an utter delicacy. I have to sleep with my head under the sheets throughout most of summer otherwise I get eaten alive during the night

Yeah, I have been in some of the most hostile places in the world where mozzies have been munching away at everyone around me, but I have never been bitten.......I don't know why I am immune, but I am. My missus hates me for it........haha

Well, more like some people attract mosquitos more. It has to do with secreting some type of markers. Type O seems to secret it more, so they get bitten more.

Why do mosquitoes bite some people more than others?

Not only were Type O’s more likely to be landed on, but the study found that for any blood type, people who secreted a chemical marker about their blood type through their skin (both blood type and secretor status are determined by genes) were bitten much more than non-secretors;

Well I'm type O neg and they hardly ever come near me. Mr Suspiria and the kids are walking mossie banquets though.

Evolution.. natural selection

I've always wondered this too. I am 0+ and never get bitten and my Brother is the same way. When I was pregnant, they ate me alive though.

I think that those people are getting bit they just cant feel it and have no reaction to the poison. I have witnessed my friends who don't get bit having mosquitos around them . I know one thing, they love to chew on this guy.

Originally posted by rehtaeh620
I've always wondered this too. I am 0+ and never get bitten and my Brother is the same way. When I was pregnant, they ate me alive though.

Probably because they could somehow sense your freshly abundant supply of blood at that time. I imagine it would drive them nuts.

As has been said, some of it is basic natural selection. Not everyone has it because it is/was not 100% fatal not to have it. If 100% of people who did not have this trait died before they could have kids, soon enough 100% of people alive would have it.

Some of it is what people have eaten recently. I seem to recall that certain fruits in particular make you smell more appealing to mosquitoes...bananas were one of them iirc?

I heard body odor is the best repellent... Maybe your a lil stinkier than your bros? Lol

Good queston though, I seem to get bitten the least out of my group of friends. I dont think its because of BO though lol


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Dang, the question of whether food affects things is a contentious topic out there in internet land.

The much sourced but overrated Snopes says no, but some other sites say yes to bananas.

The science/logic that suggests that yes, bananas do make you more attractive to mosquitoes, is that bananas are high in potassium, which lead to increased lactic acid secretion on the skin, and lactic acid is well documented to be something which is attractive to mosquitoes.

But that is only like 10 minutes of google search. Something tells me I could spend a few days going bonkers trying to nail this one down if I really felt the need. Thankfully, I do not.

To be honest I can't bloody stand bananas, they make me retch.

i would estimate that 98% of the time that mosquitos do not bite me...while the rest of the people are slapping themselves silly

it might be because i'm a beer-a-holic?
it may be phermones or genes... but that would not explain the other 2% of the time when mosquitos keep biting me one-after-another like they do to the others on a regular basis


it might be because some swarms of mosquitos are different than the majority of the mosquito population

one might track the habits of bees or humming birds to see if these creatures avoid certain flowers or fruits
perhaps the tiny mosquito may have an analog revulsion to certain people...


IOW it may not be a persons chemistry, rather it might be the insects' Preferred Target selection at play

reply to post by DocHolidaze


The same people that don't get bothered by mosquito's too often, also don't get bit by other biting insects.

After moving into a new ground floor apt. near the beach in California.
I was covered by some kind of red itchy spots (belly. back, arms and legs)
There were at least 50 of these itchy spots.

I thought I had a disease and had no money for a Dr. so I ask a Pharmacist If he recognized what it was.
He ask me if I recently moved or got a new pet. I said I moved 2 days prior.
He told me they were Sand Flea bites and that I was getting bit while sleeping.

I ask what I could do to get rid of them and how to stop them from biting me.

He said" first buy a couple of flea collars cut them into quarters and place at corners
and along edges of the mattress under the fitted sheet."

Next He handed me a bottle of Vitamin B Complex...said "take 4 of these a day until
you can smell the Vitamin B through the palms of Your Hands, then one a day after that"

"Then I want you to find a stray dog let it run through your apartment for a a couple of days
and let then let it go it go" (I did not do this but I did get a spray that worked)

Why do some folks get bit and others don't?
They have a higher count of B Vitamin in their system. and the little pests don't like the smell or taste.
I don't blame them It has a nasty smell, But it worked for me.

Try a B complex every day or change your diet to include more of the B's. I swear It Works.
I get ask all the time why I don't bet eaten up by the 'skeeters while others are slapping away

They love me, although since I have been using coconut oil as a skin and hair moisturizer, I find that i don't get bothered nearly as much as I used to.

I usually only put it on my hair, face and arms. We were headed to myrtle beach for our vacation a few weeks ago and we had to pull over off the highway to check out a noise we were hearing. We pulled into a grassy area that had a tree wall on the border. I'll tell you what--I have never in my LIFE have been bombarded with so many mosquitoes. (we were killing them inside the car for the rest of the ride after--they just swarmed us like nothing I have ever experienced.) I had been out of the car for about 5-10 seconds, looked down and my legs were covered with a blanket of ugly, biting nasties. They didn't touch my arms or my face, though! In the maybe 15 seconds I was out of the car, i ended up with over 40 bites on my legs. Not one on any part of my upper body. Yay, coconut oil!

We have a lake on our property & have a large supply of mosquitoes.

Eat raw onions & or garlic, we use raw onion sandwich with cheese & mayo (so the kids will eat it) & garlic supplements or allicin capsules and the mosquitoes will leave you alone.

Also, geraniums & marigolds are a natural repellant & roots can be made into a bracelet or necklace if you are out in the woods or hiking...etc. & plants can be placed around patio or on window ledges to keep out bugs.

Catnip oil is also far more powerful than deet and no harmful chemicals.

reply to post by 11andrew34


i get that, i was thinking since we have been going to war so long with mosquito that we would all be resistant by now, but then that got me thinking i bet the mosquito evolve right along with us and become resistant to our resistance , thank you sir i get it now. thats what i love about ats a simple conversation can open ones mind to ideas.