For years I have plagued by death squads of voracious mosquitoes. My particular genetic lineage hails from the south, a land rampant with all manner of blood sucking insects. Suffice to say we took a great number of vacations to Florida when I was younger. And it was not always a picnic.
It was great, surf fishing, eating seafood, going to MGM and Disneyworld, seeing my grandparents and enjoying the slower pace of life down there. But, whether it was that time when I stepped in a fire ant hill when I was two, the situation where a crab clasped both thumbs, or the time I was stabbed in the middle finger by a catfish (which resulted in a hilariously swollen FU finger), the creatures down there love to pester and maim me. Most of all, the mosquitoes would flock to me like I was an all you can eat buffet. This resulted in many vacations where I was covered head to toe in calamine lotion. In one instance I had 118 separate mosquito bites. Apparently I am delicious or could there be another reason...
...Well, researchers from the United Kingdom think they have found the specific characteristic which seems to determine whether those pesky skeeters attack you in droves. Stress.
Yes, stress, the more stressed out you are, the more of a specific set of odors your body begins to emit. These stress odors act as a natural mosquito repellant. So I suppose I can thank my parents for my low stress childhood and all those lovely itchy insect bites. Thanks mom & dad! Maybe this will be the year I catch west nile.
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