Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/09/02/mosquitoes-love-pregnant-beer.html
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Be aware of the In2Care mosquito control trap - invented to stave off mosquitos in malaria prone places, they are also sold for homeowners in the US.
- Contains a bucket of water to encourage mosquitos to enter and lay eggs.
- When they land on the mesh interior it coats mosquitos with larvicide which kills their eggs, and they carry to other egg-laying sites and poison those too.
- It also introduces a fungus that kills the mosquito in a matter of days, but not before they poison other egg laying sites.
- The fungus also inhibits the growth of virus in mosquito’s gut preventing them from spreading disease.
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Alternate headline: “We’re not sure why mosquitoes like you so much!”
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I know a disproportionate number of people with O-negative blood (myself included), and we’re all extreme mosquito magnets. We all have stories of sitting around a campfire with everyone else remarking about how lovely and mosquito-free the evening is while we’re swatting the little bastards every few seconds.
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Mosquitoes love pregnant, beer-drinking exercisers with Type O blood
So do a lot of men, although most of them don’t care about blood type. It’s the beer that draws them (the men, that is). The pregnant parameter may come later.
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Um, wtf does this even mean? Stand out how? Against a white curtain?
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Against a green forest?
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Maybe Kelly green in broad daylight, but none of the colors mentioned would “stand out” in many of the environments mosquitos are worst. It’s silly nitpicking, but the choice of words threw me.
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pregnant, beer-drinking exercisers
Poor kid, coming into the word with Zika and fetal alcohol syndrome. Thanks, mom!
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This is fascinating as an O- myself. In a group of people (back when such things were still safe), I was nearly always the person wondering where the mosquitoes were while everyone else was windmilling their arms and doing sequences of moves that mostly resembled Morris Dancing in an effort to drive them away. I remain thankful for whatever genetic twist resulted in my being undesirable to mosquitoes.
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Indeed, you are an outlier, you should be eternally grateful!
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I definitely am. I still get bitten, but for the same duration of outdoor activity I might have two or three bites where my partner might have twenty five. I don’t take this for granted!
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Ah! But is mosquito color vision the same as humans’ color vision?
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If the fungus can be spread to other water reservoirs, is it safe to aquatic insects like for example great diving beetle?
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Apparently limited like color blindness but shifted more toward the UV end. I see these colors repeated by various sources as being attractive, but still don’t really understand how. Especially as most of them say that they are especially attracted in low light. Human vision spectrum would make these colors less stark in low light, so maybe there’s another mechanism at play.
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The fungus grows into the mosquito and kills it, not into the water. The larvicide contaminates the water, but only small egg-laying sites (puddles, gutters, old tires, etc) not ponds or large ecosystems.
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Me too. A-, which may have something to do with it, but I never seem that appealing to them. I’m also non reactive to poison ivy and most other forms of natural irritants; capsaicins may as well be my own blood. However, my body reacts badly to certain industrial chemicals. Every time I stay in a hotel and forget to bring a towel I am reminded of it.
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My wife is O positive and she’s been a walking buffet for skeeters since I’ve known her. She once had a lump of overlapping bites so big we called it “Pangaea.”
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Since drinking beer was the only other thing on the list that applied to me, for a minute I thought this might be a case of “camping/fishing while Black.” However, they always left my brothers and parents alone. 
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Agree. I don’t think mosquitoes choose the person in the area who’s the most visible. However, I have observed that our mosquitoes seem aware of how visible they are according to their background -positioning themselves in front of a dark background when I’m hunting them.
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