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Comment on The unpleasantness of mosquito bites is not something useful for mosquitoes, but it *is* useful for the ones who suffer it

dohpaz42@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

I disagree because the reaction to a mosquito bite is an after effect of being bitten. By the time you realize you’ve been bitten, it’s too late. Any damage is already done. It’s also difficult to see mosquitoes, as they are small. Similar to ticks, they do not usually trigger a sensation that you would feel. The best you could hope for is to recognize and correlate the itchiness with the locations you visit, and learn to stay away from that area at certain times.

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Cadeillac@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Hey, you kind of figured it out by the end. The people that stay away from those areas to prevent being bitten will also avoid disease whether that was their intention or not

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- Brkdncr@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I was rooting for them the whole way.
  
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sinkingship@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I disagree. I live in mosquito land and get bitten a lot. I’d say the majority of mosquitos biting me, I feel when they land, before they bite. Probably half of those I can either slap or miss and they take off again and try again. There are some spots though where I don’t feel them land. The annoying ones are those I feel touching me but they don’t land, they just fly around. Those are hard to slap.

Unrelated question: does anybody happen to know if the biting time matters for transmitting disease?

2 mosquitos died on me while typing out this comment.

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- dohpaz42@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Maybe my mosquitos are different than yours (just looked, and there are 3600 different kinds). Usually when I take my dog out so she can “commune with nature”, I’ll end up getting bit two or three times by mosquitos. I never feel them at all, except for the itchy bumps after the fact. Could be me. I only ever get bit on my legs/ankles.
  
  As for bite time, I don’t think it’s the length of time the mosquito feeds, but the act of breaking skin and feeding. The malaria parasite will cause the mosquito to bite over and over again, which probably increases the infection rate.
  
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  - sinkingship@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Maybe they are different. I live in Asia. From what I heard there are many mosquito species, but the majority not blood sucking or at least not human blood sucking. Only few species carry disease, if I recall correctly.
    
    To be fair, when I’m preoccupied, I also don’t feel them always. Or I feel them but my hands are busy, so I can’t slap them. I often have this at night, when I’m playing PC games and my feet get stung up. It’ll be like “ouch, my foot! Gotta slap that mosquito, but first I finish this in game. And then this.” Procrastinating until it’s too late.
    
    One mosquito died, writing this comment.
    
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    dubyakay@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You need a net. Or some kinda natural deterrent.
    
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    dohpaz42@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I haven’t tried it myself, but I’ve heard coffee grounds are a good mosquito repellent. If you have access to essential oils, you should also look into citronella oil too.
    
    Keep up the good fight!
    
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- lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Mosquito land? Sounds awful! Where is it? So I can avoid it, of course.
  
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Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I literally swatted a mosquito the other day because it bit me while I was doing something else. I didn’t feel it land, but I did feel the bite which triggered me to slap it out of existence.

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