11 Jan Sandflies love only you!
Not everyone will be bitten by a sandfly. Sorry 🙂
There is a thing you will most likely get to experience, which is totally unfair – and if you are reading this you are without much doubt on the wrong side of this story:
Some people are just not as attractive for sandflies then others. That’s it – totally, utterly unfair!
So the rule is: same beach – different sandfly bites!
Why you might be running off the most wonderful beach, fighting with 25 bites all over your legs, going mad over itching your friends are rolling in the sand and not getting bitten at all.
There is a lot of mystery there as to what’s attracting the sandflies more to one group of human or the other.
Mainly there are two different theories:
1: the bite rate of sandflies is depending on the own odour, the body heat and the blood type of every person
2: the bite rate of sandflies is depending on the amount of carbon dioxide that a person exhales
Until today it is not clear, which of these 2 aspects might be the more dominant one but both of them lead to the fact that the chosen clothes are very important as well to avoid getting bitten.
Here is why:
Sandflies are brought on track of their prey (and, yes, that includes you, relaxing backpacker on the beach) through odorous substances – may it be body odour, body heat, blood type or CO2).
But as soon as they come within a closer area of their prey (approx. 6-7 meters) they change from being focused on smelling to their visual faculty to find a good landing space.
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