Certain types of soap make us more attractive to mosquitoes. American scientists came to this conclusion in an article published in iScience magazine.
People have used soaps and perfumes since ancient times, and these products have been known to affect people’s smells and alter another person’s perception of smell. However, until recently, the extent to which these odors affect people’s attractiveness to mosquitoes remained poorly understood.
In a new study, scientists from Virginia Tech University in the US set out to find out how different types of soap attract or repel blood-sucking mosquitoes. They recruited four volunteers, each of them profiling their own scents before and after a soapy shower. The scientists then compiled scent profiles for each of the four soap brands Dial, Dove, Native and Simple Truth, chosen as the most popular in the United States.
The analysis showed that each of the volunteers had their own body odor, some more, some less attractive to mosquitoes. At the same time, the effect of the soap modified these smells, and not only by adding vegetable aromas to them.
“Each person smells different, even after using soap. Your psychological state, lifestyle, diet, places visited – everything affects your smell, – explained Chloe Lahonder, co-author of the work. “And soap drastically changes how we smell, not just by adding chemicals, but by altering the release of compounds that we make ourselves.”
The researchers assessed each volunteer’s relative attractiveness to mosquitoes before and after showering with different types of soap. Since male mosquitoes feed exclusively on nectar, only female mosquitoes after recent mating participated in the experiments. Soap has been shown to affect people’s attraction to mosquitoes, but this happens differently in different people. So, soaps from the Dove and Simple Truth brands increase the attractiveness (but not all) of volunteers to mosquitoes, while varieties from the manufacturer Native, on the contrary, scare them away.
“For mosquitoes, what really matters is not the most important compound, but special bonds and combinations of compounds, not only of the soap itself, but also of our own smell,” explained l author of the book, Clement Winger. All types of soap contain a limonene compound called repellent. But despite its presence in all four soaps, three of the four soaps we tested increase (human) attractiveness to mosquitoes. The experiments also identified four mosquito repellent compounds in the soap, including those that give the soap a coconut scent.
Read the Latest Ukraine War News on The Eastern Herald.
