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Mosquitos

genetic freak

genetic freak

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Dec 28, 2015
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A couple months ago, I was using MT2, and started to get pretty dark, and I never got bit once. All other years, I was eaten alive by them. It was so strange.
Just another reason to run MT2 year round. I have been slacking. Starting to look less middle eastern....
 
Yano

Yano

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The ketone thing piqued my interest so I did some googling on it ,, I cant find much really other than what I put up below and some articles that repeat it ...

I did a keto diet for months when I first started losing weight but I honestly can't remember if i got bit less that summer or not ,, not something I usually pay attention to.

The one thing I did find interesting is that IF ketones attract them to us ,,, ketones are released when were really low on glucose right ? ... does having a proper glucose level from a certain source make us taste off to them ? If its from VOCs emitted from the skin that perhaps glucose from certain food sources make us smell or we just plain taste bad

" Ketones are one of many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that human skin emits, and they can attract mosquitoes. People with diabetes or on ketotic diets may be more likely to get bitten because their bodies produce more ketones, which smell like acetone. "

"Mosquitoes use a combination of chemical signals to find humans, including carbon dioxide, lactic acid, and other VOCs. Skin microbiota also plays a role in producing these compounds. Other compounds that attract mosquitoes include ammonia and sulfides."

 
Bigtex

Bigtex

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Aug 14, 2012
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I have always thought ketones keep them at bay. I came to this conclusion, as ketones have the same odor as someone who is drunk and I have never been bitten by mosquitos when drunk. I have passed out in a lawn chair in the bayous of Louisiana and woken up without a single bite. However, sober, I get torn the fuck up. They love me.
My wife is usually on a high ketone diet. These damn mosquitos eat her ass up. So I have a feeling it has nothing to do with diet. Also, neither of us drink.
 
beefnewton

beefnewton

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Nov 11, 2022
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Maybe pheromones. Men supposedly produce far more pheromones than women. I'm pretty sure you can buy androstenol in a spray to test. Or maybe it's the stinky one that repels them.. androstenone.
 
Yano

Yano

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Maybe pheromones. Men supposedly produce far more pheromones than women. I'm pretty sure you can buy androstenol in a spray to test. Or maybe it's the stinky one that repels them.. androstenone.
i can tell ya for a fact test n tren don't even make em blink ,,, they come back with gym bags n towels n shit ,, I'm like a gym for skeeters
 
Bigtex

Bigtex

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Aug 14, 2012
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The ketone thing piqued my interest so I did some googling on it ,, I cant find much really other than what I put up below and some articles that repeat it ...

I did a keto diet for months when I first started losing weight but I honestly can't remember if i got bit less that summer or not ,, not something I usually pay attention to.

The one thing I did find interesting is that IF ketones attract them to us ,,, ketones are released when were really low on glucose right ? ... does having a proper glucose level from a certain source make us taste off to them ? If its from VOCs emitted from the skin that perhaps glucose from certain food sources make us smell or we just plain taste bad

" Ketones are one of many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that human skin emits, and they can attract mosquitoes. People with diabetes or on ketotic diets may be more likely to get bitten because their bodies produce more ketones, which smell like acetone. "

"Mosquitoes use a combination of chemical signals to find humans, including carbon dioxide, lactic acid, and other VOCs. Skin microbiota also plays a role in producing these compounds. Other compounds that attract mosquitoes include ammonia and sulfides."

Thank Yano. I have not see this yet and pulled the full study. "For instance, the influence of some factors, such as human genetic traits
(Kirk et al., 2000; Verhulst et al., 2013; Fernandez-Grandon et al., 2015, Jones et al., 2017), has only recently been demonstrated. The role of other factors, such as diet, is still controversial." So as I suspected, it is more likely attractiveness is due to genetic traits and most likely diet has little to do with it.

They do mention that skin microbiota influences the release of mosquito attractants, I use soap to bath but my wife has been using a medical antibacterial soap they give to people who are going to have surgery. Seems to make no difference.

Alcohol
"Alcohol consumption also increases human attractiveness to An. gambiae (s.s.), potentially due to changes in body odor caused by alcohol metabolism. Beer was the
source of alcohol in both studies mentioned above." But then we have guys here who say they don't get bitten after drinking.

Caffeine
"Recently, caffeine was identified on the human skin surface (Wooding et al., 2021), suggesting that the consumption of beverages (in this case coffee or derivatives) may indeed modify the human odor signature, making it possible to speculate that highly aromatic beverages and foods could affect human attractiveness to mosquitoes." Both fo us drink caffeine so I rather doubt this is the cause one way or another.

Banana
"the consumption of bananas (Musa acuminata) increased human attractiveness" Neither of us eats bananas so this is out.

Human genetics
"The influence of factors strictly connected with the human biological makeup on susceptibility to mosquitoes is still poorly understood." "the influences of age and sex are still not clear mainly because they are not significant determinants of human attractiveness" I knew this was a non-factor. They do mention our skin order may have a lot to do with the way we individually metabolize fatty acids. Higher amounts of some by products could cause more attractiveness.

"Fig. 3. Factors that interfere with human-mosquito interactions. Skin microbiota, pregnancy, malaria parasites (Plasmodium infection), human genetic factors (e.g. HLA alleles) and diet affect the release patterns of mosquito attractants (kairomones), impacting human-mosquito interactions." "A kairomone is an interspecific semiochemical or a mixture of semiochemicals, produced by one species which induces responses advantageous to an individual of a different species perceiving the signal." Kind of like when a male cat marks.

5. Conclusion and perspectives
Human susceptibility to mosquitoes is influenced by environmental components, mosquito-linked factors and human-related characteristics and conditions. Among the latter, the most well-characterized to date are pregnancy, Plasmodium infection, skin microbiota, genetics, and potentially diet. The importance of each of these factors will be greater or lesser, depending on the environment, availability of vertebrates and species of mosquito. In general, some patterns are evident: pregnancy and Plasmodium infection increase human attractiveness to mosquitoes, especially to Anopheles species; the diet appears to have some influence on the release of human-derived kairomones, although this topic still needs further investigation; skin microbiota and human genetics, especially HLA alleles, modulate the production of kairomones, influencing the susceptibility to mosquitoes. These influences are summarized in Fig. 3. The patterns reviewed in this article are important for studies focused on infectious disease dynamics and, especially, for the development of better mosquito control strategies (e.g. development of better repellents for individual use). Considering the public health perspective, the variability in human susceptibility to mosquitoes may impact the risk of infection by mosquito-borne diseases in endemic areas. This variability must be considered in mosquito control strategies.

After reading this I suspect individual human genetics play a huge part, but what specifically is still a mystery.
 
Yano

Yano

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Sep 18, 2022
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Thank Yano. I have not see this yet and pulled the full study. "For instance, the influence of some factors, such as human genetic traits
(Kirk et al., 2000; Verhulst et al., 2013; Fernandez-Grandon et al., 2015, Jones et al., 2017), has only recently been demonstrated. The role of other factors, such as diet, is still controversial." So as I suspected, it is more likely attractiveness is due to genetic traits and most likely diet has little to do with it.

They do mention that skin microbiota influences the release of mosquito attractants, I use soap to bath but my wife has been using a medical antibacterial soap they give to people who are going to have surgery. Seems to make no difference.

Alcohol
"Alcohol consumption also increases human attractiveness to An. gambiae (s.s.), potentially due to changes in body odor caused by alcohol metabolism. Beer was the
source of alcohol in both studies mentioned above." But then we have guys here who say they don't get bitten after drinking.

Caffeine
"Recently, caffeine was identified on the human skin surface (Wooding et al., 2021), suggesting that the consumption of beverages (in this case coffee or derivatives) may indeed modify the human odor signature, making it possible to speculate that highly aromatic beverages and foods could affect human attractiveness to mosquitoes." Both fo us drink caffeine so I rather doubt this is the cause one way or another.

Banana
"the consumption of bananas (Musa acuminata) increased human attractiveness" Neither of us eats bananas so this is out.

Human genetics
"The influence of factors strictly connected with the human biological makeup on susceptibility to mosquitoes is still poorly understood." "the influences of age and sex are still not clear mainly because they are not significant determinants of human attractiveness" I knew this was a non-factor. They do mention our skin order may have a lot to do with the way we individually metabolize fatty acids. Higher amounts of some by products could cause more attractiveness.

"Fig. 3. Factors that interfere with human-mosquito interactions. Skin microbiota, pregnancy, malaria parasites (Plasmodium infection), human genetic factors (e.g. HLA alleles) and diet affect the release patterns of mosquito attractants (kairomones), impacting human-mosquito interactions." "A kairomone is an interspecific semiochemical or a mixture of semiochemicals, produced by one species which induces responses advantageous to an individual of a different species perceiving the signal." Kind of like when a male cat marks.

5. Conclusion and perspectives
Human susceptibility to mosquitoes is influenced by environmental components, mosquito-linked factors and human-related characteristics and conditions. Among the latter, the most well-characterized to date are pregnancy, Plasmodium infection, skin microbiota, genetics, and potentially diet. The importance of each of these factors will be greater or lesser, depending on the environment, availability of vertebrates and species of mosquito. In general, some patterns are evident: pregnancy and Plasmodium infection increase human attractiveness to mosquitoes, especially to Anopheles species; the diet appears to have some influence on the release of human-derived kairomones, although this topic still needs further investigation; skin microbiota and human genetics, especially HLA alleles, modulate the production of kairomones, influencing the susceptibility to mosquitoes. These influences are summarized in Fig. 3. The patterns reviewed in this article are important for studies focused on infectious disease dynamics and, especially, for the development of better mosquito control strategies (e.g. development of better repellents for individual use). Considering the public health perspective, the variability in human susceptibility to mosquitoes may impact the risk of infection by mosquito-borne diseases in endemic areas. This variability must be considered in mosquito control strategies.

After reading this I suspect individual human genetics play a huge part, but what specifically is still a mystery.
They seem to bite any one and everyone on occasion , I cant think of any one thats totally immune to the lil bastards ,,, you can find shirts around here for sale to the tourists with them on it and it says Maine State Bird.
 
Bigtex

Bigtex

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Aug 14, 2012
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Yano, I can tell you that I have never been bitten by a mosquito in my life. After all of this rain we have had here in Houston, the mosquito population is crazy. I took my cat out for a walk there other day and there was a swarm of the damn things around him and not one anywhere close to me. Like I am invisible. My wife came out to join us and she literally got chewed up in 15 minutes. At least I learned the south is not the only place that has these damn pests :) Main's State bird is funny. The only place I lived in the north was NYC and I was only there during the cold months. Never saw anything but huge rats. We now have 23 positive cases of West Nile this week, 21 were hospitalized. Al apparently in the area we live. Our county has started aerial spraying but what they don't tell you is high humidity and sunlight quickly break down the spray. Our HOA also does nightly spraying but I have not ever seen it do anything do reduce the mosquito population. The good part is we have quite a few dragon flies buzzing around lately. Each one will eat around 100 mosquitos a day. Its nothing to see 20-30 of them towards the evening when the sun starts going down.
 
Yano

Yano

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Sep 18, 2022
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Yano, I can tell you that I have never been bitten by a mosquito in my life. After all of this rain we have had here in Houston, the mosquito population is crazy. I took my cat out for a walk there other day and there was a swarm of the damn things around him and not one anywhere close to me. Like I am invisible. My wife came out to join us and she literally got chewed up in 15 minutes. At least I learned the south is not the only place that has these damn pests :) Main's State bird is funny. The only place I lived in the north was NYC and I was only there during the cold months. Never saw anything but huge rats. We now have 23 positive cases of West Nile this week, 21 were hospitalized. Al apparently in the area we live. Our county has started aerial spraying but what they don't tell you is high humidity and sunlight quickly break down the spray. Our HOA also does nightly spraying but I have not ever seen it do anything do reduce the mosquito population. The good part is we have quite a few dragon flies buzzing around lately. Each one will eat around 100 mosquitos a day. Its nothing to see 20-30 of them towards the evening when the sun starts going down.
we have mosquitos , we have no-see-ums , which are so small they can get through most window screens and they bite like a skeeter .. then we have black flies , horse flies/deer flies and moose flies ,, each one bigger than the next , moose fly is about the size of your average bee.

the flies don't sting they chew a hole in you and lap at it the little monsters , i dont think we have to worry about west nile and things like that up here yet due to the drastic changes in weather , that kills most creepy crawlies.

I got a buddy , him and his wife went on a fishing trip and even with the bug spray she had lines of bites around where her cuffs n collar were from them chewing on her. It gets real bad up here in summer depending on how deep in the woods you are.

Welcome to Kokadjo

 
beefnewton

beefnewton

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Nov 11, 2022
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I can't get over the knowledge that someone walks their cat. I didn't even think that was possible.
 
genetic freak

genetic freak

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Dec 28, 2015
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The only thing I do know is that I get tore up a lot more than everyone else around me. It seems they will bypass others to get to me. It is the same with hornets and wasps. I get stung multiple times a year minding my own business. We could all be outside enjoying a nice day camping around a fire and I will get stung by a yellow jacket, bald faced hornet or wasp for no damn reason at all. It has already happened 4-5 times this year. We ran into a hive of yellow jackets when I was teenager stomping around in the woods. Everyone else got hit a few times, I got hit hundreds of times.
 
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