Next time you’re out camping and cursing mosquitoes you claim, “like the way you taste,” you might want to think about putting that beer down.
Related: This Is What Mosquito Swarms Look Like In Alaska
In a study completed by the Journal of the American Mosquito Control Center, 12 test subjects were split in half with one group receiving beer while the others stayed sober.
“Our study demonstrated that percent mosquito landing on volunteers significantly increased after beer ingestion compared with before ingestion, showing clearly that drinking alcohol stimulates mosquito attraction.” – Journal of the American Mosquito Control Center
After measuring individual sweat production, ethanol levels in each individual’s sweat, as well as the amount of mosquito landings on each test-subject, the findings indicated that beer drinkers are more likely to get bit by mosquitoes. That said, the finding was purely observational as the researchers were unable to find a correlation between ethanol levels and actual mosquito bites.
Find the entire abstract here: Alcohol ingestion stimulates mosquito attraction.
