Do Mosquitoes Prefer Certain Blood Types?

Mosquitoes suck. Not only do they target our blood vessels and threaten us with an assortment of diseases, but they also appear to be biased. According to a study by the Institute of Pest Control Technology in Chiba, Japan, mosquitoes don't particularly care for people with type A blood. For their research, the institute assembled a group of 35 volunteers with different blood types. The volunteers took turns sticking their arms into an aquarium filled with mosquitoes that had had their proboscis amputated to prevent them from actually biting. The results showed that the skeeters went after arms carrying type O blood almost twice as often as the arms with type A blood: 85 percent of the time versus 47 percent.

Although things sound bad for folks with type O, the real truth is that things are just rosy for type A people. Anyone with type AB or B blood is at about the same amount of risk as the type-O victims. It should also be noted that having type A doesn't mean you're in the clear, though. Mosquitoes also enjoy biting anyone who has been exercising -- they're attracted by a higher body temp and more lactic acid -- and those who breathe more heavily. Carbon dioxide is a mosquito magnet, and heavier breathers produce more of the gas than others.

More on mosquitoes:

• Female mosquitoes need protein for their eggs, and they get it from human blood; male mosquitoes don't bite people.
• Theoretically, it would take approximately 1.2 million mosquito bites to drain all of the blood from the human body.
• To avoid mosquitoes, do your outdoor activities in the afternoon; mosquitoes tend to take to the shade during the hottest part of the day.