Liquor use may attract mosquitoes

Anticipating the usual mosquito bites of summer, Nolan Newton, head of pest management for North Carolina and its expert on West Nile virus, wants people to know about a new study.

The headline in the Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association says it all: "Alcohol Ingestion Stimulates Mosquito Attraction."

Researchers in Japan recruited 13 men and one woman, including one man who served as the control subject.

The authors measured sweat production, skin temperature and ethanol content in sweat before and after ingestion of 12 ounces of beer. The drinkers were compared to the non-drinking control subject. All were exposed to Asian Tiger mosquitoes.

Mosquito landings "significantly increased after beer ingestion compared with before ingestion, showing clearly that drinking alcohol stimulates mosquito attraction," the report said.

Researchers found that mosquito attraction is not related to alcohol in sweat or to skin temperature. But they think it may be due to unknown chemical substances on the skin after drinking alcohol.

Newton's e-mail added: "Thought you should know this in time to alter your plans for the July Fourth holiday."

Researchers in Japan recruited 13 men and one woman, including one man who served as the control subject.

13 people is not a study it isn't even a good party.

All were exposed to Asian Tiger mosquitoes.

Maybe only Asian Tiger mosquitoes like beer.

Please note that I do not wish to be confused with some left wing writers (e.g. Ambrose, Goodwin) who pirate works of others without attribution. My good friend, and fellow Freeper, southernnorthcarolina, sent this article to me this morning. It did not occur to me at the time that this should trigger attribution; however, upon further reflection, it seems to me that it does. I trust that this belated footnote suffices.

Attribution would not seem to be an issue, inasmuch as the article (actually, a portion of the Observer's health column) was already in the public domain. I merely alerted you to its existence. Nonetheless, I appreciate the thought. Mosquito season in your part of easternnorthcarolina lasts, it seems to me, about 350 days a year; here in my part of southernnorthcarolina, it seems to be a mere 300 days or so. So we must all be vigilant.

There seems to be an irony here. It has long been known that quinine is an effective antidote to malaria, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. It has long been my practice to take an occasional gin and tonic (aka quinine water), strictly as a precaution, you will understand. A wedge of lime, to ward off scurvy, is an additional palliative (the fact that scurvy is almost unknown these days I interpret as proof of the efficacy of lime wedges). But now we learn that "liquor" (by which the columnist seems to mean all manners of adult beverages) may be implicated in the attraction of mosquitoes to my epidermis. What to do, what to do.

A second irony is the fact that only female mosquitoes seem to require human blood for their survival. Make of that what you will. But I must now confront the apparent fact that on those rare occasions when a female of the human species was drawn to me at a bar, it wasn't really me she was drawn to, but my gin.

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