How to fight insect bites
By Amy Kraft, CBS News
Summertime is all about enjoying the great outdoors. But there is a pesky little threat that could spoil your fun: insects like mosquitoes and ticks. The threats posed by insect bites are increasing, according to researchers, as climate change makes summers hotter and, in some places, wetter.
“One insect can spot you 150 feet away and actually zone in on you,” Clifford Bassett, medical director of Allergy and Asthma Care of New York, told “CBS This Morning.” “So you really don’t want to be a target.”
What attracts mosquitoes?
“There are 400 compounds in our skin that are attractive to mosquitoes,” Bassett said. Mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide in breath, sweat, higher body temperature, certain perfumes and scents, and pregnant women because they exhale more carbon dioxide than other people and have more blood circulating through their bodies. Research shows that the bodies of some individuals produce natural repellents to mosquito bites, which are genetically controlled.