Overview

• A Radboud University team reports that festivalgoers who drank beer were about 1.35 times more attractive to mosquitoes.
• Researchers suggest post-drinking changes in body odor and behavior drive the effect, and measured blood alcohol levels did not account for it.
• The bioRxiv preprint tested 465 volunteers at the Lowlands festival using an odor-only arm-in-cage setup with landings quantified from video.
• Other associations included lower attraction with sunscreen use and with skipping a usual shower, higher attraction for those who had not slept alone, and greater attraction linked to more Streptococci on the skin.
• Authors emphasize limits of a self-selected, young festival sample and an observational design, urging replication before drawing causal conclusions.