Evolution in humans, to resist midgies

Question

I went camping recently with a friend who is from Indonesia(I'm from England) and while I was eaten alive by bugs and spent the entire time covered in bug repellent he was not affected at all. do you think that his ancestors, having lived in a country with a lot of biting insects for thousands of years have evolved some way of not getting bitten. Where as my ancestors coming from northern Europe were not exposed to the same level of insect bites and I am therefore not as well equipped

Answer 1

This is more a matter of your immune system having never had to cope with these midges. Biting insects do seem to prefer some people more than others for whatever reason, but most likely your friend from Indonesia was also bitten but his immune system didn't react like yours did.

Answer 2

I read somewhere that the levels of Vitamin B1 (thiamine) in your body has an effect on your attractiveness to midges. They don't like it.

Answer 3

Could be.  A recent report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences summarized findings from the field of molecular biology that human genes governing the function of the immune system have been evolving at a rapid pace in the last 2000 years.

Answer 4

This phenomenon is not specific to Indonesians.

There are people in Britain who also just seem to get bitten less (or more) than other people.

I don't know what causes it, but it's probably a pheromone thing: basically some people smell tastier.

Answer 5

Nope.  The fact is there was something that made you more attractive to the midge.  It is an individual thing, not a population characteristic.

Answer 6

believe it or not, your likely hood of being bitten by insects while the person sitting next to you doesn't has the most to do with natural bodily scents as well as other items that you would apply to yourself...body wash, lotion, perfume/cologne.  Some of these attract insects more than others.

Answer 7

I dont think its that complicated. Maybe one of you is hairier than the other. I dont get bitten by midges but the wife does. But if my cat gets fleas, i notice first.