The Relationship Between Drinking Beer And A Higher Number Of Mosquito Bites

It is believed that drinking beer makes you more noticeable to disease carrying mosquitoes that hunt by scent. However the exact reason this happens is still unclear.

Scientists think it could be the increased body temperature, or increased sweating, or an increased amount of carbon dioxide exhaled by the drinker.

According to entomologists, even the carbon dioxide that is released when a beer bottle is opened can attract mosquitoes to the guzzler.

Mosquitoes track CO2 to locate their prey and they excel at picking it up. They can follow a stream of carbon dioxide from more than 100 feet away.

According to Amiya Kumar Hati, former director of the School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata, “Those who sweat more, attract more mosquitoes. There are certain chemicals in human sweat that attract the insects more.”

This has been proven. Lactic acid, uric acid, ammonia and other substances that come out with human sweat are known to attract mosquitoes.

It is also well known that mosquitoes enjoy feeding off people with blood type O and in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Those exhaling more carbon dioxide also get more mosquito bites.

“There have been studies on beer-drinkers attracting more mosquitoes and we are not ruling out any possibility, but there is nothing very conclusive to decide any public health action point based on it,” says Pritam Roy, World Health Organization’s West Bengal coordinator.

“One of the studies show that the percentage of mosquitoes landing on a person significantly increased after beer ingestion compared with before ingestion. However, ethanol content in sweat and skin temperature did not show any correlation between alcohol ingestion and mosquito landings.” Roy added.

Does this mean you should avoid beer outdoors? Not exactly. There are ways to repel mosquitoes even when you drink and some involve simply eating some slices of food.