Literally, that is. Feet, especially those laden with bacteria smelling like cheese, are a favorite spot to lunch. According to the article, the nipping is done with a proboscis, a springy syringe with a hollow needle protruding from the mosquitoes mouth. A mosquito can suck two to three times its weight in blood, comparable to a 150 pound human eating between 300 to 450 pounds of food. Only the females feed on human blood, and thankfully, only when they need nutrients to finish making their eggs.
Entomologists labor away to decode the cryptic tales of mosquito attraction.
Mosquitoes have CO2 receptors on little feelers called palpi and can detect a plume of gas from about 50 feet away. Some of us are more effusive than others, and that may explain why everyone doesn't get bitten equally.