This might be a bit of painless fun (don't go fishing for mozzie bites for this though  ), please vote in the poll.  You're allowed to vote more than once to put in details for your family/friends.

Surfing around the internet for information about non-secretors.  Found this article http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2891/do-mosquitoes-prefer-certain-blood-types-plusthat

It claims that based on two studies, mosquitos prefer blood types in this order (list of most prefer to least):

• O Secretor
  
• A Nonnie
  
• O Nonnie
  
• A Secretor
  
• Then the other types , B Secretor / B Nonnie, AB Secretor / AB Nonnie (didn't go into detail)
  

There are probably other factors too.  I find that if I eat lots of vegemite or vitamin B they sometimes leave me alone, otherwise they love me!  Or maybe it's the salt that deters them?  Do you find that?
FYI Only the female ones bite, nasty!

   Mosquitoes seek me out.  They'll be swarming all over me while my husband , an O+ (don't know secretor status), sits beside me & says "what mosquitoes".  Camping in Sept. is so much nicer for me as there's usually less of the little critters.

I don't get bit too much, compared to my friends.  

Spiders, on the other hand . . . . !!

I get bit every spring and summer, anywhere from a couple of bites, up to my record of 7 in one warm season.  

Quoted from Symbi

...
There are probably other factors too.  I find that if I eat lots of vegemite or vitamin B they sometimes leave me alone, otherwise they love me!  Or maybe it's the salt that deters them?  Do you find that?
FYI Only the female ones bite, nasty!

A diet rich in B vitamins deters them.  They never bother us when we take care of our diet that way.  In hot humid days, when they are particularly active in the evening, it will be suicidal to venture out without your Vegemite dose ... On rice cake or soup, make sure you have it ...

... I do not know how to choose the answer...

When eating fruits, grains, mosquitos loved me...

Because I noticed that sulfur in the food of my goats move away insects, 6 months ago (so before BTD) I decided to eat 1 onion per day. During the summer period, I was as quiet as my goats !

So happy that onions are beneficial for type O                  

Cristina - thanks for confirming the vitamin B.  Reminds me of that old aussie ad, "We're happy little vegemites, as bright as bright can be, we all enjoy our vegemite for breakfast, lunch and tea".  

Well not exactly with every meal    I can't have any at the mo, causes burning / bloating, fighting a yeast infection again I think   (black dot for Explorers unfortunately)

Onions may be good replacement against the beasties though thanks Mohairandsilk, hope your new diet is working out well?  When you say you were as quiet as your goats   (cute) Do you mean you weren't swearing and swatting anymore?  Sorry it's hard to choose an answer, this quiz doesn't make much sense!    

BC Gal, those BC mosquitoes are more like helicopters and they leave huge welts.  I think the Alberta types are almost invisible but literally trillions of them in our back yard.

I very rarely get bitten, but I do get swarmed....

Because we live on property with lots of water, the municipality does spray, but we always have a smokey fire lit in the evenings if we want to sit outside to keep the critters at bay.  

Quoted from Symbi

Onions may be good replacement against the beasties though thanks Mohairandsilk, hope your new diet is working out well?  When you say you were as quiet as your goats   (cute) Do you mean you weren't swearing and swatting anymore?  Sorry it's hard to choose an answer, this quiz doesn't make much sense!    

no more swearing, no more swatting ! that's right !

The fact is that insect which bite to suck the blood, are fond of sugar and hate sulphur... and onions are full of sulphur  
And I noticed that people who like sweets, sugar in general, are loved by many other insects (flyes, wasps, bees...). Keep them at bay by suppressing sugar and eating vegetables that contain a lot of sulphur (onions, garlic...).

I wish everybody peace with the insects !

insects don't like me .....

Quoted from Amazone I.

insects don't like me .....

I wonder why, Isa??     

Must be all those little blue and golden smileys all around you that shoo the insects away!!  

Mosquitos have never cared for me much, thankfully.  They DO go after my sister, though, who is also an O and I'm going to guess a nonnie.    

SWAMI Hunter

As a youngster, I took part in a study that showed that B vitamins (can't remember whether it was B6 or B12) are fairly effective as a mosquito repellent.  Other than that, all of the bugs just love me - mosquitos, black flies, you name it.  I don't know my secretor status yet, so I didn't vote, although I believe I am a nonnie.

Mosquitoes love me but not my son.

Victoria, not sooo bad at all ... perhaps am I the bigger than those ;) ....all about good vibes ;) ... or perhaps
merely a form of getting  aware of..   ... ....justamente experimenting with the voice of Don Miguel Ruiz and his *four agreements* .... no time to get bitten here by no-one  ;) .....

Quoted from Symbi

It claims that based on two studies, mosquitos prefer blood types in this order (list of most prefer to least):

• O Secretor
  
• A Nonnie
  
• O Nonnie
  
• A Secretor
  
• Then the other types , B Secretor / B Nonnie, AB Secretor / AB Nonnie (didn't go into detail)

I am confused 'cos in the list here it says O secretrors but in the poll its nonnies

Quoted from Mohairandsilk

...  I decided to eat 1 onion per day. During the summer period, I was as quiet as my goats !  

I wish my DH was as quiet as a goat when he eats onions Cooked or raw he sure isn't quiet... Must mean he aint no goat..at least

not this nonnie!!

haven t had agave, or molasses, or any kind of sweetener in years, besides veg glycerin.......but not even ants like that one!

Lola, you don't eat anything sweet other than fruit?

That is impressive self control!

it doesn t even appeal to me anymore!

... as Lola
I feel nausea if I eat sugar, candies... drink soda with sugar, syrups... and some fruits are too sweet for me, for example cherimoya, mango...

Even with this instinctive diet mosquitos loved me before I ate onions ; maybe Vit B was missing in fact... let see next summer...

I would get some mosquito bites, but more if I consume more sugar (same for flies bugging me, especially if in a group with others).

My brother, especially growing up, would get bit a lot, more then I. We think because he was pudgy, and likely consumed more sweats then I.

Fleas love me too. In college, we took in a stray cat and I was bitten so much, but my roommates weren't. Again, when my husband and I rescued some kittens and they had fleas, unfortunately, I was the one who was bitten a ton.

They love me...infact they get their knives & forks out for me!
Yes it is the females because want YOUR blood to feed their eggs!

I didn t vote....mosquitoes couldn t care less about me being around!!!
it must be the lack of sweetener in my diet! I know it is!

Lola, WE love you being around!  

Come on, where are the O secretors for this totally unscientific poll?  Currently 5 votes each for O and A nonnies, only 3 each for O and A secretors and a few other ones.  

some great responses!  Some good ideas too.  Dunno why Os would be a target most of them run pretty fast.  

I'm tasty to a skeeter.

I didn't vote, (I'm an O+ secretor/Gatherer), but I can tell you that when I was growing up in South Africa, we lived in a house with no air conditioning as did everyone else. In the summertime, we would sleep with our windows open. My sister and I shared a room. She is also an O (don't know whether positive or negative, her secretor status, etc.) I would wake up with maybe one or two mosquito bites, while she was just covered in bites. Guess she is "sweeter" than I am

Youch! BeckyB glad you didn't get bitten much.  Sounds a bit dangerous - isn't there malaria and other diseases round those parts?

Yes, Symbi...a person can easily contract malaria in Africa...usually from the Tsetse fly,though.
We loved living there in the 50's and 60's. : )

I'm not sure how to vote...I'm an O nonnie and they do NOT bite me...

Mosquitoes love me... One time I was in the woods in Northern Sweden. I got swarmed and covered by fat black mosquitoes. I ended up with 140+ bites!  

Nowadays I still get mosquito bites but it seems the intensity is much less! Possibly it helps with the reduction of sweet food and more vitamin B.  

One curious thing is that my husband, an A nonnie, gets much fewer mosquito bites than I do. Sometimes when we are sitting outdoors and he's had a beer or two, he does not get bitten at all. I wonder if the Vitamin B in beer is actually effective against critters  .

I meant to write: "We loved living there..." : )

they still don't like my blood coz of the hight of antioxidants and B'vits in ....

Cool Balletomaine and Amazone, you don't have to vote and you win unblemished not itchy skin and bonus less diseases!  

Probably true Balletomaine about vitamin B I noticed if I eat lots of yeast spread - maybe they don't like the smell of all that vitamin B.  Beer, eh, so that's why they drink lots of it.  

Thank you for this inspirational thread and poll! I linked it to my blog. Here in Finland there are many mosquitos this summer, when I go to forest to get spring water I have to be well dressed. But they don't bother me as badly as some other people when in company outside the house. Maybe still I should check "O secretor" in this poll but not yet

Oh yes, yesterday there were some mosquitos sucking me - although there were other people in the same room, too. Now I'll check the prefering

I was just reading recently (where??   ) that mosquitoes, and other insects, are drawn to certain colors.  Can't remember which ones mosquitoes prefer, but that makes sense.  Maybe somebody who is interested could google that and find out for future reference.  I haven't been bitten this year yet, but I used somebody's deet or whatever it was at the only outdoor event I've been to so far this summer.  Or else I wore a color they didn't like.

Mosquitos like blood!  If they were so picky about blood types, they would have died out by now!

Quoted from Easy E

Mosquitos like blood!  If they were so picky about blood types, they would have died out by now!

True, but that doesn't explain why in a group of people some will be bitten, while others will be left alone.  It does seem that they have a preference.

My sister is either A or B and gets mauled by them all the time.  I'm A and don't seem to attract them in large amounts, but they will land on me.  Her bites get very large and red.  I would think they would like O the most if O actually flows better than others.  They would like A the least.  

If there are O's reading this that do not get pounded and assulted or A's that get bombarded when they go out in the summer humidity, then its not the supposed thickness of the blood.  Maybe different blood types give off different signatures that mosquitos read to find prey.

They don't like Off though!!

Maybe thinner skin allows more to penetrate and get to your blood also.

Quoted from Easy E

They don't like Off though!!

True!  Thank goodness!  

Mosquitos love me. They even attacked me when I used to drink beer. I get big painful red bumps. They have always loved me.

I don't think bloodtype has anything to do with it. It's more what's in the blood. People with a lot of Vitamin B seem to get stuck/stung ( a lot less then people without.

I didn't take the poll, because I apparently stink to a skeeter.  One of my medications sends them away.  Heard it when I was younger, then again as I got older and read it in an article a few years back.  Have lived and visited many cities, and have had my share of seeing them.  I do get bit once in a while, guess those are the real hungry ones.  

The mosquitoes love me.  Would scratch the bites as a kid, now I just ignore them.