We have to admit, camping and beer often go hand-in-hand. But apparently, so do beer and mosquitoes. A recent study shows that mosquitoes are more attracted to beer drinkers, as opposed to those drinking other substances such as water.
From the study:
Water consumption had no effect on human attractiveness to An. gambiae mosquitoes, but beer consumption increased volunteer attractiveness. Body odours of volunteers who consumed beer increased mosquito activation (proportion of mosquitoes engaging in take-off and up-wind flight) and orientation (proportion of mosquitoes flying towards volunteers’ odours). The level of exhaled carbon dioxide and body temperature had no effect on human attractiveness to mosquitoes. Despite individual volunteer variation, beer consumption consistently increased attractiveness to mosquitoes.
It might be wise to stay away from beer while in the great outdoors if you don’t want to brave the bites of incessant mosquitoes. However, is it really worth chucking the beer in lieu of saving yourself some scratching? We think not. Outdoor beer drinkers, unite. Hungry mosquitoes, bring it on.
[Via: Body in Mind]
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Inspired me to look up the actual study and weed through it. While it seems from their methods that they had a great set-up, I disagree with their baseline method. They do show significant increases in a ridiculously small sample for something like this (~50 people). Would be interesting to repeat, esp with a third group treated with whiskey :).
Additionally, the focus seems to be on alcohol increasing attractiveness. If that’s the case, the water treatment should have been a non-alcoholic beer. Similar content, would have helped isolate the alcohol variable. I think I’ll keep drinkin my beer camping :P