They're a pesky, age-old enemy and now a new study has proven some people really are 'mosquito magnets'.
It's all to do with the way you smell or in particular the number of fatty acids your skin produces.
It's the dreaded buzz that's all too familiar and can often only lead to one thing.
"Just gets bitten, eaten alive," one person said
"I always get bitten really badly," another said.
But some people seem to be a tastier target than others and get far more than their fair share of bites.
"For some reason they like me, and they don't like my husband," one person told Newshub.
"I'm pretty lucky because I don't think they like me," a second said.
"He's like a mosquito magnet but everyone else in the family is fine," a third said.
There have been a lot of theories over the years as to what attracts the insects to our skin.
"It has maybe something to do with your blood type, or the fact that you've eaten too much yeast, or not enough yeast. Look, there are many hypotheses and we constantly contradict what is the answer," Ruud Kleinpaste, also known as the Bug Man, said.
But a new long-term study from Rockefeller University changes that.
Participants wore nylon stockings over their forearms to collect their scent.
It found mozzies loved certain carboxylic acids that are naturally produced on the skin, with one participant 100 times more appealing than the least attractive.
"You think that the odour on your skin would change with your diet, with your habits, but over those three years the volunteers at the lab stayed all the same," Te Papa invertebrates lead curator Julia Kasper said.
Kasper has studied mosquitoes for more than a decade.
She said these results are fascinating because they'll help improve repellents and prevent deadly diseases.
"Can we develop a strategy that they don't bite us, and don't transmit those viruses?" Kasper asked.
But for those with the scent - sorry, it looks like you'll always be a tasty snack.
"It's not only a food source, it is essential for the species to survive," Kasper said.
So if you know someone who is a mosquito magnet they might just become a repellent for the whole family.
