Nobody enjoys a mosquito bite.

And it turns out that mosquitoes don’t like being swatted away by humans — and will even remember the smell of which person did it so they can be avoided, according to a new study published in the journal Current Biology.

That means “defending yourself against mosquitoes is helpful, whether or not you manage to hit the mosquito,” Virginia Tech research assistant Chloé Lahondere told USA Today.

Researchers introduced mosquitoes to the odor of a human, rat or chicken and then gave them a mechanical shock. That shock was meant to replicate what it would feel like for the host animal to shoo away a hungry mosquito looking to feast.

With humans and rats, mosquitoes introduced to the mechanical shock were more likely to stay away, according to the study, suggesting the insects remembered the unpleasant experience when deciding where to find their next meal.

But that did not happen with the chickens, mirroring the results of other studies where bugs did not learn from bird odors, the researchers wrote.

For humans, researchers put two types of nylon sleeves in front of the bugs: Some with the scent of a person and others with no odor.

At first, the mosquitoes flocked to the sleeves that smelled like humans over the odorless ones, even preferring the smell of some people over others. That didn’t hold up once the insects experienced the mechanical shock that was associated with the smell of a certain human, the study found.

Instead, mosquitoes learned to avoid people whose scent came with an unpleasant reaction.

The study also suggests dopamine plays a crucial role in letting mosquitoes learn which humans to avoid. The critters that didn’t have dopamine receptors by genetic modification couldn’t learn to avoid smells associated with swatting.

These findings offer a perfect strategy to ward off itchy mosquito bites, said Dr. Jeffrey Riffel, a co-author of the study.

“If you are at a party or a barbecue and you are swatting the mosquitoes, make sure that your friend next to you is active in talking and they will probably avoid you and go (for) your friend,” he said, according to the Business Recorder.

It also could help prevent the transmission of certain infectious diseases, Lahondere said to USA Today.

“Now that we have a better understanding of what the mosquitoes are capable of,” she said, “we need to investigate how to apply this knowledge to refine our control strategies and fight more efficiently against the disease that these mosquitoes transmit.”