@Robert Gentel,
Sure...but I remain unconvinced that the saliva could remain localised enough to be sucked back up by a mosquito left to browse contentedly.
@dlowan,
Perhaps the saliva could be applied topically. Not necessarily injected but added to the top of the skin.
@tsarstepan,
By the mosquito? I think it goes in allright.
Or are you suggesting mosquito saliva as an anti-irritant?
Who will milk the mosquito?
It must make some difference where the mosquito bites you. Once in awhile I will get a bite that is far worse than others. Last summer I had one bite my finger, it must have been right on the vein, I could feel the burning itch travel all the way up to my elbow. That was the worst one I ever had, my arm itched on the inside, it was maddening.
@wayne,
Fingers are the WORST!!! And the closer to the bones of the finger that are the worster it gets.
mosquitos have all kinds of nasty nasty bacterial agents. Those not carrying things like malaria typhoid and Rross River/ Murray Valley encephalitis carry other less dangerouse bacteria and viruses.
I suspect that the bites that have a more marked effect have a more irritating bacterial agent.
Mouth parts are decidedly disgusting when it comes to bacteria and not just on mosquitos.
@dadpad,
dadpad wrote:
mosquitos have all kinds of nasty nasty bacterial agents. Those not carrying things like malaria typhoid and Rross River/ Murray Valley encephalitis carry other less dangerouse bacteria and viruses.
I suspect that the bites that have a more marked effect have a more irritating bacterial agent.
Mouth parts are decidedly disgusting when it comes to bacteria and not just on mosquitos.
You speaking to the woman who has twice had cellulitis from spiders' filthy little choppers!
You know of course to remove water from pot plant saucers around your home?
Any idea where the blighters are breeding?
@dadpad,
Probably in the plant saucers on my balcony...but the pots are too heavy to remove to empty the saucers.
I try not to have water in them...but sometimes there just IS water there.
@dlowan,
A few drops of kerosene in each saucer will fix them. It spreads a light oily film over the water surface which the wrigglers are unable to breathe through.
the oil stays on the water surface so it doesnt get sucked up by the plant and when it dries out the oily film sticks to the sides of the pot and saucer.
We used to use a couple of teaspoonfula in our water tank way back when it was the only water supply we had.
@dadpad,
Been wondering if that would work.
I'll try it, thank you.
@dlowan,
dlowan wrote:I am really allergic to mosquitoes, and they either especially like to bite me,
or I notice bites that others don't because of the intensity of my reaction.
Anyway....I just killed the little smegger
that has been biting me in my study this morning.
a racial slur, after a revenge-based killing
@dlowan,
If they don't find a vein to give them a meal on their first attempt they will keep making new holes until they do, then feed until they're full.
Posting months later here.. but, re the water accumulating in planting pot saucers, I wonder if a good basting syringe (one of those with a steel needle-like attachment) would work. Or, failing that, a regular syringe/needle, just for that purpose, syringe and needle varying in size relative to the amount of water.
So handy for the home, old lab tools and flasks.. too bad I never absconded with any.
Ordinarily the female mosquito will only bite once--assuming she gets her fill. When her belly is full it cuts off a nerve, so she is unable to feed again until her eggs develop and she lays a clutch. Mosquitoes can and do lay multiple clutches, but it takes a couple of days for her eggs to develop after a meal.
The mosquito that repeately bites is having difficulty drawing up enough blood at the first source. Male mosquitoes don't and can't drink blood; they subsist on plant nectars.
Any reaction from a mosquito bite is an allergic reaction, but, obviously some people have more severe reactions. Supposedlly, after enough bites, one becomes immune.
@coluber2001,
Actually, with allergies, repeated exposure can make it worse. That's what's happening with mosquitoes and me, and what happened with bees and me.
It can also, as you say, help the allergy to settle.
@coluber2001,
coluber2001 wrote:...Supposedlly, after enough bites, one becomes immune.
HA! "Supposedly" is right! Believe me, if that were possible, I'd have been immune for decades now! I'm a veritable mosquito magnet.
@Eva,
Fer sure.
I used to be super-allergic (like, major swelling -- a bite near my eye made the eye swell shut for a while), after many years as a human pincushion (Minnesota state bird = mosquito) I now just get small red bumps. But I get 'em, and man they're itchy. <reaches down to scratch ankle>
@sozobe,
Try Benadryl spray, soz. (OTC, available at most drugstores.) It works better than anything else I've found. Spray it on & rub it in.
I keep two spray bottles in the house and one in my purse. The mosquitos are out in force here from May 'til November.
