Mosquitoes

I heard the Dalai Lama speak a year ago.  He was an engaging speaker and of course, full of great insight. Unfortunately, the thing I remember most vividly was his response to a question from the audience.  He was asked if he'd ever killed anything before.  His Holiness spoke with a bit of disdain in his voice and started talking about his dislike of mosquitoes.  Yes, the Dalai Lama had in fact ended the life of a mosquito before.  The man won me over.

Unfortunately, mosquitoes love me.  At the moment, I have seven mosquito bites.  And its not even summer anymore. When I first lived in Sacramento, I had unreal levels of mosquito bites during the summer months.  This go around is proving to just as lovely.

So why do mosquitoes love me more than say everyone else around me?  From my preliminary research online, it seems like the jury is still out on why exactly mosquitoes some people more than others. One site said it was partially based on blood type.  A couple of sites said that mosquitoes like people who have been drinking beer.  Apparently if you have stinky socks, they like that too.  Given that I didn't drink beer today nor was I wearing socks (wore sandals), I think the field needs a bit more research.

Any other theories?

So as much as I love Sacramento, I have to say that LA definitely wins in the lack of mosquitoes category.  (and LA wins in the awesome car-free street event category.  Today, was LA's 5th cicLAvia.  Photo for today's post is from a previous ciclavia)