New Study Reveals Stinging Truth Behind Mosquito Preference for Some, Aversion to Others

A new study has revealed that taste may play a role in why mosquitoes tend to prefer some people, and avoid others.

In the study published Wednesday by the scientific journal Nature, compounds found in human sweat were identified as a factor that may increase biting, while bitter compounds strike mosquitos as less appealing.

Researchers observed how 46 various taste compounds affected the neurons of the Asian tiger mosquito, which is found across six continents. The different compounds studied included amino acids, bitter compounds, salts and sugars, as reported by YaleNews.

Researchers discovered sugars among other compounds positively stimulated the mosquitoes' neurons, while other compounds hindered neural activity. Bitter compounds were actually found to reduce feeding behavior. Salt and some amino acids found in human sweat increased biting when found together, but had no effect on biting just on their own.

"And that nuance makes sense to us," Lisa Baik, a postdoctoral associate and the lead author on the study, told YaleNews. "There are a lot of places in nature that have salt and a lot of places that have amino acids, but humans have both together on our skin. So maybe the mosquito is able to identify the combination and recognize our skin as a good place to bite."

The mosquitoes were also presented with samples of human sweat in the study, which researchers found the insects to have strong preference for certain samples.

"We think this could be part of the reason why some of us get bitten by mosquitoes a lot more than others," John Carlson, a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale and a senior author on the study, told YaleNews. "Some people may just taste better to mosquitoes."

Researchers said the next steps are to determine the exact compounds that get mosquitoes to leave in order to possibly do more work with disease prevention.