---
title: Each Mosquito Species Bites a Different Set of People
description: A Florida International University study put 119 volunteers against three mosquito species and found no universal mosquito magnet. Skin chemistry decides.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
updated: 2026-08-07T23:24:30.320Z
canonical: https://richhealthmagazine.com/article/mosquito-species-prefer-different-people-fiu
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/mosquito-under-microscope-fiu-lab-119758.webp
categories: Everyday Wellness
content_type: News
region: Global
publication: Rich Health Magazine
schema_type: Article
---

If mosquitoes find you at a barbecue while the person next to you is untouched, that may say less about you than about which species is in the garden. Researchers at Florida International University tested 119 volunteers against three mosquito species and found that not one person was attractive to all three. Each species had its own preferences, driven largely by the chemistry of a person's skin. The results are published in the journal iScience.

## The Two Daytime Biters Read Opposite Signals

Aedes aegypti, which spreads yellow fever, dengue and Zika, went for people wearing no added scent and whose skin lacked certain volatile compounds. For that species the draw was less what someone gave off than what they did not, and it showed a slight preference for men over women. The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, feeds during the day too but was pulled the other way, toward skin secreting higher levels of ketones and plant-like volatile compounds. It also [spreads West Nile, dengue and dog heartworm](https://news.fiu.edu/2026/youre-not-every-mosquitos-type).

## The Night Biter Is Reading Bacteria Rather Than Scent

Culex quinquefasciatus, the southern house mosquito, feeds after dark and carries West Nile. It keyed in not on scent compounds directly but on the skin microbiome, the community of bacteria, fungi and other microbes that live on everyone's skin. Some bacterial families acted as a green light to feed. Others drove the mosquitoes off. “Each species having a distinct microbial signature that they use as a cue was so surprising to me,” said Kaylee Marrero, the doctoral student who led the study.

> "It is clear to me now that our skin microbiomes define our human odor signature. Each species found its own way to decode that signature."
> — Matthew DeGennaro, neurogeneticist and director of FIU's Biomolecular Sciences Institute

## The Magnet Study Everyone Remembers Tested One Species

The idea that some people are simply mosquito magnets comes largely from work published in Cell in 2022 by Leslie Vosshall's laboratory at Rockefeller University, which [found a strong association between high levels of certain fatty acids on the skin and being bitten more](https://www.rockefeller.edu/news/33019-why-mosquitoes-bite-some-people-more/). That study ran for three years with eight participants, who wore nylon stockings on their forearms and had them tested against each other in a round robin using a two-choice olfactometer. It used a single species, Aedes aegypti, and never claimed to hold across others. Vosshall has also said that popular explanations such as blood type, blood sugar, eating garlic or bananas, being a woman or being a child have little credible data behind them. The FIU results add two more species to that picture and show that magnet status can move with the insect doing the biting.

## Mapping the Cues Is the Point of the Work

Alongside the preference tests the team sampled the volunteers' odor and microbiome to see which compounds and bacteria were present and at what levels. Human scent runs to more than 1,000 volatile organic compounds, many of them still uncharacterized. DeGennaro said isolating the components of human odor that attract or repel mosquitoes could lead to new strategies against vector-borne disease, and FIU says the work opens a route to microbiome-based repellents that would disguise the skin signals a given species is looking for.

## FAQ

**Q: Why do mosquitoes bite some people more than others?**
Attraction is driven largely by an individual's body chemistry: the volatile compounds the skin gives off and the bacteria living on it. The FIU study found that which of those cues matters depends on the species doing the biting.

**Q: Does blood type decide whether you get bitten?**
Leslie Vosshall of Rockefeller University has said that blood type, blood sugar, eating garlic or bananas, being a woman and being a child are all popular theories with little credible data behind them.

**Q: Which mosquitoes bite during the day and which at night?**
Aedes aegypti and the Asian tiger mosquito both feed during the day. The southern house mosquito feeds after dark.

**Q: What is the skin microbiome?**
It is the ecosystem of bacteria, fungi and other microbes that lives naturally on human skin. The FIU study found the southern house mosquito's attraction was heavily tied to its composition.

**Q: What diseases do these three species spread?**
Between them, yellow fever, dengue, Zika, West Nile and dog heartworm.