Why do mosquitoes bite humans?

Mosquitoes are out there to drink blood to fill their stomachs. Then why don’t they bite all humans equally? We all know that in a room with many people, some of them will be troubled so much by a mosquito while some others are left alone.

We used to have yoga sessions in a hall with many others and mosquitoes used to frequent the hall. From the yoga postures, hands had to be freed to kill the mosquitoes. Then it so happened that only my husband and I were doing yoga in the same hall. After some days, we suddenly noticed that mosquitoes were not present in the hall. We came to the conclusion that if you are calm inside, mosquitoes leave you alone.

Then there is another view that mosquitoes come to remove the excess blood that some persons may have. They are thus bringing balance in nature.

There is also a view that mosquitoes bite on acupressure/acupuncture points to relieve problems of the person being bitten. So if you don’t have any problems that need to be treated, chances are that mosquitoes will leave you alone!

A research on this topic showed that one of the key ways mosquitoes locate their targets is by smelling the carbon dioxide emitted in their breath.—they use an organ called maxillary palp  to do this, and can detect carbon dioxide from as far as 164 feet away. As a result, people who simply exhale more of the gas over time—generally, larger people—have been shown to attract more mosquitoes than others. This is one of the reasons why children get bitten less often than adults, on the whole.

According to one study, people who drink just one bottle of beer, increase their detect-ability levels to the mosquito world. As per the opinion of an entomologist, mosquitoes attract people dressed in striking colors such as black, navy and red.

Life’s lesson from Life plant

I cut out a leaf from the Life plant (Miracle leaf, or ‘Ilamulachi’ in Malayalam) and hung it in the air. Within a week, roots started sprouting out of its serrations, and in a few days, cute, tiny leaves also appeared. The mother leaf hanging in the air with so many tiny little babies! No water was available to the leaf for this period.

I went out and looked at the plant from which I had plucked and brought the leaf. None of the other leaves had sprouted baby plants. 

The separated leaf was facing adverse situation, which led it to propagate itself.

Then the great lesson of life struck me. The Universe puts us through tough situations to bring out the best in us. Without realizing the significance of having to face difficulties, many parents approach me for counseling when their children have to take some tough decisions in life. They fail to understand that those experiences are necessary to make them balanced, mature individuals!