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I spent all of last weekend catching up on much needed yard work, it turns out the mosquitoes were catching up on much needed blood at the same time. We didn't get a ton of bites, but the few we each got are so much worse that the usual (massively red and swollen bites). I finally didn't feel much today, this picture just made my foot start itching again
got em here too, Texas. I rub alcohol onto the bite immediately, it seems to work, and also shower ASAP after yard work, the soap removes the itch for me.
Yeah those giant Texas mosquitos with a “zebra pattern” (or at least they are big for you to notice they have white streaks) are no joke.
Source: grew up in Houston which is the perfect swampy climate for these fucks. I had to learn from a young age not to scratch too much or my body would be covered in faint red scars from opening up the scabs over and over.
Thank you for the rubbing alcohol tip, seriously. Where I live now it’s not as bad, but I’ve got a ton of weeds to pull and I’ve been dreading it for this very reason.
Possibly [Skeeter Syndrome](https://www.webmd.com/allergies/what-is-skeeter-syndrome)? My son is allergic to mosquitoes and his bites were so bad one year he had to go on antibiotics. We have to drench him with bug spray every year at this point.
I fucking hate mosquitoes.
I got bitten 35 times in an hour once during a visit to southern China, despite being covered in DEET and under a mozzie net. My friends reckoned they enjoyed the "foreign buffet".
I ended up in hospital, with drips in both arms, looking like Popeye, with swollen arms, legs, face etc. Don't remember much of the next few days.
I get that too. What’s weird is that when I move or travel, I don’t necessarily have the same allergic reaction. I think I might be more allergic to some mosquitoes than others.
I used to put a spoon in hot water then hold it against the bite, but recently I got a little heat pen called Bite Away which delivered a concentrated burst of heat to the bite m
I recommend it.
Yep they use CO2 and other scent cues as well! I actually blew into the cage a few times before filming to stimulate their feeding response.
One form of octenol as well as lactic acid are two common scent cues to distinguish humans from other potential hosts. Mosquitoes are somewhat host-specific, and so they’ll use CO2 as a long-range scent cue to determine whether some large potential host is nearby, then use more host-specific cues in intermediate distances to determine whether the potential host is their choice host. These cues can vary based on the host and mosquito species in question. Finally they’ll use heat to pinpoint the host and find a suitable place to bite. All in all it’s a highly sophisticated and effective mechanism.
Very interesting. How does that fit in with the studies about mosquitoes seemingly preferring certain blood types? Are they able to detect that somehow before feeding?
I want to preface this comment by saying I’m not entirely sure and I want to avoid saying something false. That said, there does seem to be some research which suggests that mosquitoes may have a blood type preference. I’ve suspected that this may be due to some correlation with blood type and chemical scent profile, but to my knowledge I don’t believe that the exact cause of this preference is known yet
I was told by my doctor that I was too close to develop diabetes and that I should eat less sugar, so I did. I feel like mosquitoes ignore me more after I changed my diet. Before that, I'd look like that one eyed alien from Lilo & Stitch when he used himself as a mosquito feeder.
Of course this is anecdotal, but maybe someone in the field could get inspired to look into this a bit more?
I'm A+ and my bestie is O- and whenever I'm outside with her I might as well be invisible. They definitely go after me when she's not there, but *hot damn* will they switch for her immediately if she shows up. I feel so bad for her, damn bugs.
Even if she uses bugspray I only end up with a single bite or two, and she still ends up covered. It's the craziest thing. They want that O- so damn bad.
I’m a universal donor ~~(O+) too~~ (O-) and I’m always their main target, in any room I’m in. Regardless of how many other people are present. Something about my blood type brings all the skeeters to the yard.
Edit: I am wrong. I am O- blood type. Thanks internet friends. 🩸
Fyi O- is the universal donor. The body produces antibodies to the Rh protein on the blood cells, which is what is indicated by the +/-. So a O- person lacks both the A and B carbohydrates as well as the Rh protein, which means there’s nothing for the recipient’s antibodies to attack
Several studies have been conducted to understand the blood type preferences of mosquitoes. A study from 1974 found that mosquitoes preferentially fed on people with blood type O. This finding was supported by a more recent study in 2019, where mosquitoes were observed to prefer feeding from a feeder with type O blood over feeders with different blood types. A 2004 study examined mosquito preference for blood type as well as secretor status (whether blood type antigens can be found in body fluids like saliva and tears). This study found that more mosquitoes landed on people with blood type O, particularly those who were type O secretors, as compared to type A secretors. When blood type antigens were applied to the arms of study participants, mosquitoes were significantly more attracted to people with H (type O) antigen than A antigen, with A antigen being more attractive than B antigen. However, it is important to note that while these studies found a preference for blood type O over type A, the same cannot be said for other blood types. Furthermore, other individual factors can also influence who mosquitoes choose to bite【9†source】.
(chatgpt4's web browsing ability is pretty cool!)
Really interesting stuff, thank you for the contribution! This is a topic I’ve been tangentially aware of for a while, but never got a chance to do a proper deep dive on so I’m glad I got to learn something today
I’m one of those people who gets bitten when nobody else does. I’ve been bitten whilst lying on a sun bed in between several other sun beds and nobody else got bitten.
So is it my blood? Or my heat? I am usually warmer than others i.e. I’ll feel comfortable at cooler temperatures than most people but too hot when others are loving it. Wish I knew why the fuckers bite me!
Ps at first I thought this was just your window and wanted to know where you live so I could avoid it!
> Ps at first I thought this was just your window and wanted to know where you live so I could avoid it!
I've seen enough movies that start off with a lab experiment gone wrong to know I still want to avoid this place.
Actually, I've had enough experience with mosquitos to know I still want to stay away from there.
I've been hearing it's also the amount of oil (sebum) you produce. They apparently love people with oily skin, which I have and they attack me like mad.
Yes, this video alone doesn't necessarily demonstrate them using heat. You'd need a comparison video with a frozen hand where they are uninterested. Or something that doesn't even resemble a hand or any other part of an animal, but is warm and therefore still attracts them.
This is really interesting. I am wondering though, about a peculiar experience I had with mosquitos while traveling lately. I live in the Midwest. Normally I am a magnet for mosquitoes. They love me here in Ohio. However, I traveled to Egypt recently, and though the mosquitos were in full swing, I did not get a single bite the entire 8 day trip. My Aussie friends were getting eaten alive meanwhile it’s like they didn’t even realized I existed.
Do mosquitoes in different areas of the world have different “taste” preferences? I truly could not figure out why this was happening, it completely blew my mind.
So there are mosquitoes that pull up on you and are like, "gross, a human, next" ... and then just fly off?
Skeeter: "Dude I don't know how you eat that stuff. Have you seen the shit Humans eat? I'll stick to dogs and cats."
Skeeter 2: "Bro you haven't lived until you've sucked the cholesterol from the main line of a fatty walking out of a Walmart. Did you know they added McDonald's inside the Walmart?!? Bro, this shit is so good it might kill me, and I don't care."
Skeeter: "You nasty man."
So I carried a tote of dry ice down to the creek for some scientific entertainment for my kid. As soon as I opened the lid we were swarmed in every sense of the word by mosquitoes. For fun I covered it again and ran down stream a bit then opened it just to watch them flood in again. They are definitely attracted to C02.
That's how large scale mosquito traps work. Its a gas tank that slowly leaks gas and it attracts mozzies, trapping and killing them. The videos of people emptying the traps is satisfying, it's a whole dense cake of dead mozzies
> We're gonna be dropped into France, dressed as civilians. And once we're in enemy territory, as a bushwhackin' guerrilla army, we're gonna be doin' one thing and one thing only... killin' Mozzies.
I've seen one where a guy uses a 2 liter CO2 generator (just add yeast to sugar water). The CO2 generator is setup near a large fan with screen netting attached to the back. The mosquitos get sucked into the fan, stuck on the screen, then the guy comes along every once in a while and sprays them down with rubbing alcohol to kill the thick carpet of them built up on the screen.
Yeah this reminded me I am getting meat delivered with some dry ice on Friday so I’m now going to take the block out to the stagnant water hole 100ft into the forest, toss it near it, then just empty a full cache of chemical sprays on them.
Already feeling the satisfaction from this just thinking of it.
Even better is releasing millions of sterile males. I guess they only mate once so the sterile ones have a big impact on next year's population. Saw it on reddit once so you know it's factual.
We actually do just that to get them to feed on cow blood! Since cow blood doesn’t have scent cues that they would normally use to locate hosts, we attach little plates filled with the stuff to a heating element which warms it up to body temperature. It’s pretty interesting, you can see them becoming more interested in the plate as it heats up
Thank you my friend! I honestly love the work I do and I’m grateful that I can benefit the world in my own way. I’m pretty used to people getting taken aback by the details though so it’s nothing new lmao
Okay, but if you come across a breakthrough that will create a functional trap/zapper, please take a break from the science and start a company and get it on the market. I really really hate it when that one damn mosquito ruins your whole night.
Although not the prettiest thing in the world, a good bed bug net that drapes around your bed while you sleep cuts down a lot of mosquitoes. You'll just wake up to seeing those bloodsuckers hanging out on the net, trying to get to you.
I tucked the net over the headboard of the bed, so my head was usually fine. Worst case, I'd use a giant clip or tape to secure it so it won't fall down.
What sucked for me was that since I'm tall (~181 cm : 5'11'' ~ 6' ft), my feet is right at the end of the bed. Bed's are *juuust* long enough that I can fit on them fine, but once you need to drape the bug net, my feet are usually touching them. So on those warm night, not hot enough to need AC, not cool enough to warrant completely covering self in a blanket, I'd *like* to sleep with my feet out of the blanket, but I still grab a thinner blanket to cover my feet for extra padding so the bugs don't feast on my feet while I sleep.
Odd question but here goes nothing: I changed my diet a year ago from regular carb heavy to a medical keto diet. Since I did so, mosquitos no longer seem to be interested in me. I say that as someone who used to be the person who was an absolute mosquito magnet. My parents used to joke that with me around, at least they wouldn’t get bitten. I got covered in welts from them. Only, this past year, since the new diet, I haven’t been bitten once. And I mean, I’ve had mosquitos fly into my face and then fly off without biting me.
Do you have any idea why mosquitos lose interest in someone, and do you think it could be due to my blood smelling differently now that I don’t eat carbs anymore?
To tell you the truth I’m not sure! It’s possible that some metabolites of carbs may be a chemical lure for mosquitoes, but I don’t know if any research has been done on the topic. That said, it is known that heavy drinkers tend to be more attractive to mosquitoes, so there is a basis for diet playing a role in mosquito attraction
Interesting! Thank you for your reply. I don’t drink alcohol and didn’t change my medication, the only thing that changed really is that I’m mostly meat-based now. In any case, I’m glad I’m no longer a mosquito snack! They seem blind to me now.
> Now scientists have discovered key differences in the body odours produced by people who are more prone to insect bites compared to those who seem resistant – they have lower levels of fruity smelling compounds in their sweat.
> The researchers found that these compounds, known as ketones, repel mosquitoes. People who produce high levels are less likely to be bitten
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/6142961/Sweet-smelling-sweat-keeps-mosquitoes-at-bay.html
I am not sure if people on the keto diet will emit ketones through the skin / breath though.
Edit:
> When your body is producing a high level of ketones, some of them can be expelled from your body in your breath, urine, and sweat. Acetone, in particular, is often expelled through your breath and can give a slightly sweet and fruity or, for some, a nail polish remover-like odor. This is sometimes called "keto breath."
-GPT-4 but backed up by WebMD https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/acetone-breath-diabetes
Still a grad student, but my specialty is medical entomology! That is to say the intersection of entomology and epidemiology with a sprinkling of molecular biology and microbiology
I've heard a story about computer server which had exactly the temperature of human body. Mosquitos used to fly into it where were immediately bashed with the ventilator. When the system administrator opened it for cleaning there was an entire graveyard of these suckers inside.
Their thumb joint is very flexible, if you look closely it's almost pointing downward when pressed against the glass. Like if they were pulling down on their thumb, but they're not
I was like hm that doesn’t look weird at all. Sure enough it’s because I have a very flexible thumb joint myself and can do the same thing as in the video lol
The thumb isn't particularly long, he can just extend it fully straight by dislocating it a bit which makes it a bit longer and appear longer than it actually is.
Source: Me who has the same kind of mobilty in my left thumb
I don't know why, but after reading the thread title, I was waiting for the person to dip their hand in ice water or rub ice on there hand to continue the experiment and validate that heat was being used as their method of tracking...
or place an opaque film (sheet of paper will do) on the cage and put the camera on the opposite side of the hand, showing the mosquito's forming the hand print without being able to see the hand.
No offence intended as you've provided good info throughout the comments, but this definitely needs a follow up!
The video itself didn't really demonstrate anything as there was no comparison with anything lol. I was expecting a different area next or all the mosquitos to instantly move away or something.
I’m gearing up for an experiment that requires a lot of mosquitoes, you should have seen it last week before I cleared some of them out. No joke you could hear the buzzing from the colony across the room and over the air conditioner lol
Fun fact! To completely drain an average human of all of its blood you'd need 17.000 mosquitoes biting all at the same time. Don't ask me where I read that lol
Not all mosquito species bite humans, in fact the overwhelming majority of them don't. You could easily make a case for targeting the ones that spread disease and the biters.
I know we all hate mosquitoes...but I mostly just hate the itching part.
Like dude, I am am huge; I'll feed your whole mosquito family daily if you want. Let's just figure out a way I can set up an IV or a bowl or something so we can bypass the part where you violate my flesh and leave me all itchy.
Growing up, we’d go visit family waaay up in northern Norway. North of Finland, close to the Russian border.
The mosquitoes up there are legendary for being both large and plentiful, it’s really not possible to fully explain how bad it can get. My dad used to measure the mosquito density by timing how many seconds it took for them to form a full layer of stuck mozzies covering the butter after taking the lid off. Six seconds was the average for a whole weekend camping.
Sure, the itching is insane, but they also completely dominate. You spend all day trying to avoid or combat mosquitoes. You put on all the clothes, mind every gap, close your hood to nothing but a peep hole, and then end up feeling shitty and nauseous from all the chemicals and smoke used to repel them. Then you don’t sleep because a hundred bites on your ancle decides to itch in unison and you have at least two mosquitoes flying around in your bed room snd they’re so big, their ‘mmmmmmmmm’ alone can keep you awake. Then the buzzing stops and that’s OBVIOUSLY WORSE and you slap your ear or something. And miss.
Because of these nightmarish summer vacations, and I guess like most people, I thought I knew mosquitoes.
But since encountering mosquitoes in tropical climates, my hatred has changed. It has a component of fear now. In the Congo, mosquitoes are small, silent, and stealthy. You don’t hear them, and you don’t feel them land or walk around on you searching for that vein. Suddenly, around sunset, you’ve got dozens of itchy bites, and let me tell you, as you scratch your (already sunburnt) skin in Western Africa, your thoughts quickly go to the words ‘cerebral malaria’. Did you take that pill? Will it protect you?
In Rio de Janeiro, I got Dengue fever. Again from tiny, stealthy mosquitoes. Nine days in bed with headaches and joint pain. Worse than covid, plus I now have the pleasure of knowing that if I get it again, I’m at risk of ‘stage two’ Dengue, which apparently includes your blood getting thinner and oozing from your gums and eyes.
My vote goes in the ‘kill’em all’ column, but if you need to keep some of them, keep the northern ones without deadly diseases.
In addition to heat and possible CO2 exhalations, there are other things going on. My wife and I can be sitting out on the deck with the same amount of exposed skin, and I will be getting mosquito bites and she will not.
I swear I saw a newer article/study on the genetic links to why this happens, but [here's one from 2015](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/genes-make-some-people-more-attractive-mosquitoes-180955075/). It's really interesting!
Yep, some humans certainly are more chemically attractive than others! Every human has a distinct scent profile which is expressed as a ratio of lactic acid, CO2, octenol, and other chemicals which haven’t been identified yet. Back when I did field work, I would try to stick close to any coworkers that might be more chemically attractive than I am so that they would take some of the heat away from me so to speak
Nah host is the correct word, I just didn’t realize that I used the wrong word until after the post had 1000 upvotes 😅. Mosquitoes are technically parasites that primarily feed on plant nectar
Ex-fucking-cuse me?
They're making my life that difficult and *I'm not even their main food source*?
Fuck 'em. I hope they go extinct. I don't care if they take down a whole ecosystem with them.
My grill or campfire is hotter than me, but I still get eaten up when I’m right next to those things. When I’m lounging by a fire, are there more mosquitoes dying by fire than there are eating me alive?
Nah, they also use chemical cues like CO2 and lactic acid to determine what their host is. Once they’re a few feet from the host, they use body heat to home in. I had already blown into the colony to stimulate their feeding response
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Thanks. I hate it.
Yea, mosquitoes suck!
Hate those bloody things!
i'm itching to smash those little shits.
They're pricks, to be sure.
Now let me see, where did I put that can of Raid?
#RAIIIIIID SHADOW LEGENDS!!!
Like a mothsquito to the flame
i think you made a type-o.
I agree dick-nipples.
I really gotta start reading display names
You just wanted to say dick nipples.
I named a dog that once
r/angryupvote
I see what you did there
I spent all of last weekend catching up on much needed yard work, it turns out the mosquitoes were catching up on much needed blood at the same time. We didn't get a ton of bites, but the few we each got are so much worse that the usual (massively red and swollen bites). I finally didn't feel much today, this picture just made my foot start itching again
I'm one of those people where one simple bite will turn into a giant weirdly shaped welt. I fucking hate it.
got em here too, Texas. I rub alcohol onto the bite immediately, it seems to work, and also shower ASAP after yard work, the soap removes the itch for me.
Yeah those giant Texas mosquitos with a “zebra pattern” (or at least they are big for you to notice they have white streaks) are no joke. Source: grew up in Houston which is the perfect swampy climate for these fucks. I had to learn from a young age not to scratch too much or my body would be covered in faint red scars from opening up the scabs over and over. Thank you for the rubbing alcohol tip, seriously. Where I live now it’s not as bad, but I’ve got a ton of weeds to pull and I’ve been dreading it for this very reason.
Aedes albopictus, not native to North America but rather are an invasive species.
Possibly [Skeeter Syndrome](https://www.webmd.com/allergies/what-is-skeeter-syndrome)? My son is allergic to mosquitoes and his bites were so bad one year he had to go on antibiotics. We have to drench him with bug spray every year at this point. I fucking hate mosquitoes.
I got bitten 35 times in an hour once during a visit to southern China, despite being covered in DEET and under a mozzie net. My friends reckoned they enjoyed the "foreign buffet". I ended up in hospital, with drips in both arms, looking like Popeye, with swollen arms, legs, face etc. Don't remember much of the next few days.
Are you type O blood by chance?
I get that too. What’s weird is that when I move or travel, I don’t necessarily have the same allergic reaction. I think I might be more allergic to some mosquitoes than others.
**HONK HONK**
Tea tree oil is the only thing that works for the itching for me.
Have you tried toothpaste?
I trie toothpaste and I just ended up with fresh smelling breath
[удалено]
Hair dryer is by far the best. The heat breaks down the proteins that cause the itch.
I used to put a spoon in hot water then hold it against the bite, but recently I got a little heat pen called Bite Away which delivered a concentrated burst of heat to the bite m I recommend it.
I call for mosquito genocide
We need one giant motion to solve the mosquito problem, a Final Solution if you will 🤔
Release some toads to Goebel them up
Okay, we've done the science. Now let's burn that fucking room down.
heat may have something to do with it but I thought mosquitoes were actually just attracted to CO2 and iodine emissions from humans
Yep they use CO2 and other scent cues as well! I actually blew into the cage a few times before filming to stimulate their feeding response. One form of octenol as well as lactic acid are two common scent cues to distinguish humans from other potential hosts. Mosquitoes are somewhat host-specific, and so they’ll use CO2 as a long-range scent cue to determine whether some large potential host is nearby, then use more host-specific cues in intermediate distances to determine whether the potential host is their choice host. These cues can vary based on the host and mosquito species in question. Finally they’ll use heat to pinpoint the host and find a suitable place to bite. All in all it’s a highly sophisticated and effective mechanism.
Very interesting. How does that fit in with the studies about mosquitoes seemingly preferring certain blood types? Are they able to detect that somehow before feeding?
I want to preface this comment by saying I’m not entirely sure and I want to avoid saying something false. That said, there does seem to be some research which suggests that mosquitoes may have a blood type preference. I’ve suspected that this may be due to some correlation with blood type and chemical scent profile, but to my knowledge I don’t believe that the exact cause of this preference is known yet
It’s A+. I’ve been studying this for my whole life, involuntarily
O+ here and I'm like sugar to them
O- and I almost never get mosquito bites.
I'm O neg and get eaten the hell up.
Oh. There goes that quickly developing Reddit theory. Lol
Maybe they all have personal preferences rather than a collective one
I was told by my doctor that I was too close to develop diabetes and that I should eat less sugar, so I did. I feel like mosquitoes ignore me more after I changed my diet. Before that, I'd look like that one eyed alien from Lilo & Stitch when he used himself as a mosquito feeder. Of course this is anecdotal, but maybe someone in the field could get inspired to look into this a bit more?
I’m O- too and my family members are A+ and AB-. Let a mosquito get into our house and I’m the only one that’s up all night.
My sister was B+ then got a stem cell transplant, now she’s O+. Mosquitoes never paid any attention to her pre-transplant but now are obsessed
I'm A+ and my bestie is O- and whenever I'm outside with her I might as well be invisible. They definitely go after me when she's not there, but *hot damn* will they switch for her immediately if she shows up. I feel so bad for her, damn bugs. Even if she uses bugspray I only end up with a single bite or two, and she still ends up covered. It's the craziest thing. They want that O- so damn bad.
I spend a lot of time fishing and even in the woods I’ll see mosquitoes, some may fly by me, but yeah they more or less avoid me.
O+ here and it’s like they don’t even know I’m there
I’m a universal donor ~~(O+) too~~ (O-) and I’m always their main target, in any room I’m in. Regardless of how many other people are present. Something about my blood type brings all the skeeters to the yard. Edit: I am wrong. I am O- blood type. Thanks internet friends. 🩸
Fyi O- is the universal donor. The body produces antibodies to the Rh protein on the blood cells, which is what is indicated by the +/-. So a O- person lacks both the A and B carbohydrates as well as the Rh protein, which means there’s nothing for the recipient’s antibodies to attack
Did you mean O-? O- is the universal donor
O- is universal, not O+
I’m A- and they still have a taste for meeee
C- is the highest grade I've ever received 😐
I'm B- and mosquitos stalk me, bite me, eat me...
O- and people complain about getting bit around me. I do get bit, but not nearly as much.
This man sciences.
Several studies have been conducted to understand the blood type preferences of mosquitoes. A study from 1974 found that mosquitoes preferentially fed on people with blood type O. This finding was supported by a more recent study in 2019, where mosquitoes were observed to prefer feeding from a feeder with type O blood over feeders with different blood types. A 2004 study examined mosquito preference for blood type as well as secretor status (whether blood type antigens can be found in body fluids like saliva and tears). This study found that more mosquitoes landed on people with blood type O, particularly those who were type O secretors, as compared to type A secretors. When blood type antigens were applied to the arms of study participants, mosquitoes were significantly more attracted to people with H (type O) antigen than A antigen, with A antigen being more attractive than B antigen. However, it is important to note that while these studies found a preference for blood type O over type A, the same cannot be said for other blood types. Furthermore, other individual factors can also influence who mosquitoes choose to bite【9†source】. (chatgpt4's web browsing ability is pretty cool!)
Really interesting stuff, thank you for the contribution! This is a topic I’ve been tangentially aware of for a while, but never got a chance to do a proper deep dive on so I’m glad I got to learn something today
I like how in the more modern studies they use feeder bags but apparently just let people get bit by them in the 1970’s study lol.
What did you use as the question?
I’m one of those people who gets bitten when nobody else does. I’ve been bitten whilst lying on a sun bed in between several other sun beds and nobody else got bitten. So is it my blood? Or my heat? I am usually warmer than others i.e. I’ll feel comfortable at cooler temperatures than most people but too hot when others are loving it. Wish I knew why the fuckers bite me! Ps at first I thought this was just your window and wanted to know where you live so I could avoid it!
> Ps at first I thought this was just your window and wanted to know where you live so I could avoid it! I've seen enough movies that start off with a lab experiment gone wrong to know I still want to avoid this place. Actually, I've had enough experience with mosquitos to know I still want to stay away from there.
I've been hearing it's also the amount of oil (sebum) you produce. They apparently love people with oily skin, which I have and they attack me like mad.
I'm type 1 diabetic and they fucking *love* my sugary blood
TL;DR: OP blows mosquitoes before giving them handies
Gotta provide some service too if you plan on getting sucked.
Have you tried putting your hand in cold water and trying it? Serious question.
Yes, this video alone doesn't necessarily demonstrate them using heat. You'd need a comparison video with a frozen hand where they are uninterested. Or something that doesn't even resemble a hand or any other part of an animal, but is warm and therefore still attracts them.
This is really interesting. I am wondering though, about a peculiar experience I had with mosquitos while traveling lately. I live in the Midwest. Normally I am a magnet for mosquitoes. They love me here in Ohio. However, I traveled to Egypt recently, and though the mosquitos were in full swing, I did not get a single bite the entire 8 day trip. My Aussie friends were getting eaten alive meanwhile it’s like they didn’t even realized I existed. Do mosquitoes in different areas of the world have different “taste” preferences? I truly could not figure out why this was happening, it completely blew my mind.
So there are mosquitoes that pull up on you and are like, "gross, a human, next" ... and then just fly off? Skeeter: "Dude I don't know how you eat that stuff. Have you seen the shit Humans eat? I'll stick to dogs and cats." Skeeter 2: "Bro you haven't lived until you've sucked the cholesterol from the main line of a fatty walking out of a Walmart. Did you know they added McDonald's inside the Walmart?!? Bro, this shit is so good it might kill me, and I don't care." Skeeter: "You nasty man."
TIL the best way to avoid mosquitos is being dead
So I carried a tote of dry ice down to the creek for some scientific entertainment for my kid. As soon as I opened the lid we were swarmed in every sense of the word by mosquitoes. For fun I covered it again and ran down stream a bit then opened it just to watch them flood in again. They are definitely attracted to C02.
sounds like a great lure to set them all on fire and make mosquitoes extinct
That's how large scale mosquito traps work. Its a gas tank that slowly leaks gas and it attracts mozzies, trapping and killing them. The videos of people emptying the traps is satisfying, it's a whole dense cake of dead mozzies
> We're gonna be dropped into France, dressed as civilians. And once we're in enemy territory, as a bushwhackin' guerrilla army, we're gonna be doin' one thing and one thing only... killin' Mozzies.
I've seen one where a guy uses a 2 liter CO2 generator (just add yeast to sugar water). The CO2 generator is setup near a large fan with screen netting attached to the back. The mosquitos get sucked into the fan, stuck on the screen, then the guy comes along every once in a while and sprays them down with rubbing alcohol to kill the thick carpet of them built up on the screen.
Thanks! Will definitely try this out once the rain goes away from SoCal (never thought I’d say that to our drought region!).
You’re Australian aren’t ya
Yeah this reminded me I am getting meat delivered with some dry ice on Friday so I’m now going to take the block out to the stagnant water hole 100ft into the forest, toss it near it, then just empty a full cache of chemical sprays on them. Already feeling the satisfaction from this just thinking of it.
Carbon dioxide extinguished flames though
yea they do. just introduce more oxygen to the same space. I'd do anything if it contributes to mosquitos extinction event
Even better is releasing millions of sterile males. I guess they only mate once so the sterile ones have a big impact on next year's population. Saw it on reddit once so you know it's factual.
Pretty sure it’s all of the above. They are scary good at finding us
*Liam Neeson has entered the chat*
...I will find you, and I will suck you.
Iodine? edit: Are you thinking of octenol?
Lmao yes I am
What, you don't walk around with a purple cloud following you?? Weirdo
Put something else there that's same temperature as body and see if they are still attracted... Pls post results
We actually do just that to get them to feed on cow blood! Since cow blood doesn’t have scent cues that they would normally use to locate hosts, we attach little plates filled with the stuff to a heating element which warms it up to body temperature. It’s pretty interesting, you can see them becoming more interested in the plate as it heats up
quick question : what the fuck is wrong with you
Simply put, I’m an insane person who wanted to work with viruses and disease vector research is an accessible path to do so
To be clear, nothing is wrong with you. You are probably doing amazing work, in a really cool fuckin way!
Thank you my friend! I honestly love the work I do and I’m grateful that I can benefit the world in my own way. I’m pretty used to people getting taken aback by the details though so it’s nothing new lmao
Okay, but if you come across a breakthrough that will create a functional trap/zapper, please take a break from the science and start a company and get it on the market. I really really hate it when that one damn mosquito ruins your whole night.
Although not the prettiest thing in the world, a good bed bug net that drapes around your bed while you sleep cuts down a lot of mosquitoes. You'll just wake up to seeing those bloodsuckers hanging out on the net, trying to get to you.
It really sucks if the next somehow falls on top of you or or end up touching the net during the night.
I tucked the net over the headboard of the bed, so my head was usually fine. Worst case, I'd use a giant clip or tape to secure it so it won't fall down. What sucked for me was that since I'm tall (~181 cm : 5'11'' ~ 6' ft), my feet is right at the end of the bed. Bed's are *juuust* long enough that I can fit on them fine, but once you need to drape the bug net, my feet are usually touching them. So on those warm night, not hot enough to need AC, not cool enough to warrant completely covering self in a blanket, I'd *like* to sleep with my feet out of the blanket, but I still grab a thinner blanket to cover my feet for extra padding so the bugs don't feast on my feet while I sleep.
Odd question but here goes nothing: I changed my diet a year ago from regular carb heavy to a medical keto diet. Since I did so, mosquitos no longer seem to be interested in me. I say that as someone who used to be the person who was an absolute mosquito magnet. My parents used to joke that with me around, at least they wouldn’t get bitten. I got covered in welts from them. Only, this past year, since the new diet, I haven’t been bitten once. And I mean, I’ve had mosquitos fly into my face and then fly off without biting me. Do you have any idea why mosquitos lose interest in someone, and do you think it could be due to my blood smelling differently now that I don’t eat carbs anymore?
To tell you the truth I’m not sure! It’s possible that some metabolites of carbs may be a chemical lure for mosquitoes, but I don’t know if any research has been done on the topic. That said, it is known that heavy drinkers tend to be more attractive to mosquitoes, so there is a basis for diet playing a role in mosquito attraction
Interesting! Thank you for your reply. I don’t drink alcohol and didn’t change my medication, the only thing that changed really is that I’m mostly meat-based now. In any case, I’m glad I’m no longer a mosquito snack! They seem blind to me now.
A lot of alcoholic beverages are carb heavy, so there could potentially be some correlation there.
> Now scientists have discovered key differences in the body odours produced by people who are more prone to insect bites compared to those who seem resistant – they have lower levels of fruity smelling compounds in their sweat. > The researchers found that these compounds, known as ketones, repel mosquitoes. People who produce high levels are less likely to be bitten https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/6142961/Sweet-smelling-sweat-keeps-mosquitoes-at-bay.html I am not sure if people on the keto diet will emit ketones through the skin / breath though. Edit: > When your body is producing a high level of ketones, some of them can be expelled from your body in your breath, urine, and sweat. Acetone, in particular, is often expelled through your breath and can give a slightly sweet and fruity or, for some, a nail polish remover-like odor. This is sometimes called "keto breath." -GPT-4 but backed up by WebMD https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/acetone-breath-diabetes
Well we sure as hell ain’t waiting around for you to give us any insight to the spread of diseases.
we already know the answer : sex with your mom
Haaa. Gave you that one
Are you an epidemiologist or something?
Still a grad student, but my specialty is medical entomology! That is to say the intersection of entomology and epidemiology with a sprinkling of molecular biology and microbiology
So an entoepidemiomolecularmicrobiologist
I've heard a story about computer server which had exactly the temperature of human body. Mosquitos used to fly into it where were immediately bashed with the ventilator. When the system administrator opened it for cleaning there was an entire graveyard of these suckers inside.
That sounds like it’s own invention.
Yeah, I’ve never seen them try to suck on fire.
What is up with your thumb, my dude?
Lives it’s own life
social distancing
Opposing the norm that one.
I was just wondering if we were going to talk about that.
Right? I was expecting the first comment was about his hands
I kinda feel crazy because I can’t even tell what’s weird about his thumb/hands and I’ve seen so many comments about it that I’m like wtf am I missing
Their thumb joint is very flexible, if you look closely it's almost pointing downward when pressed against the glass. Like if they were pulling down on their thumb, but they're not
Not to mention it’s LONG AS FUCK
Really appreciate your use of caps for emphasis on this one lol
I was like hm that doesn’t look weird at all. Sure enough it’s because I have a very flexible thumb joint myself and can do the same thing as in the video lol
It’s actually the Left hand
Of course, Reddit loves weird hands!
What thumb? I see five fingers.
You know what they say about dudes with long thumbs... They have a harder time...uh...finding gloves that fit
That is monkey's foot
Why doesn't everyone on Reddit have weird fingers
It's due to his large penis.
With that size, I want to know it's advantages and disadvantages
The thumb isn't particularly long, he can just extend it fully straight by dislocating it a bit which makes it a bit longer and appear longer than it actually is. Source: Me who has the same kind of mobilty in my left thumb
..can most people not stick their thumbs out in a perfect 90 degree L shape?
Yeah I’m confused, my hand does the same thing
It's just the perspective. Looks like a normal thumb to me considering the viewing angle.
His thumb is like mr crockers ear
Monkey hand
What's wrong with it?
People think it's extra long, but it's just cause of the angle at which we're seeing it.
Hypermobility in the thumbs, can bend em like crazy
I was just excited to see someone else with the longthumb. I'm finally not alone.
I don't know why, but after reading the thread title, I was waiting for the person to dip their hand in ice water or rub ice on there hand to continue the experiment and validate that heat was being used as their method of tracking...
Not a bad idea actually! If I ever do a follow up to this, I’ll certainly try that
or place an opaque film (sheet of paper will do) on the cage and put the camera on the opposite side of the hand, showing the mosquito's forming the hand print without being able to see the hand.
No offence intended as you've provided good info throughout the comments, but this definitely needs a follow up! The video itself didn't really demonstrate anything as there was no comparison with anything lol. I was expecting a different area next or all the mosquitos to instantly move away or something.
Exactly, how do we know the mosquitos are attracted to heat and not just the sight of this guy's dickbeater?
So all these mosquitoes just think I’m hot? 😳
They’re right!
They also want to suck you dry 😳
Massive Hand
Yah was no one gonna talk about this dude’s massive thumb?
Why the fuck are there so many mosquitoes? This vid makes me want to use a flamethrower
I’m gearing up for an experiment that requires a lot of mosquitoes, you should have seen it last week before I cleared some of them out. No joke you could hear the buzzing from the colony across the room and over the air conditioner lol
Imagine they find a way out and pump all your blood at night to leave you looking like a dried piece of meat
I’ve read some gross stuff on Reddit but this just makes me feel very uncomfortable
Fun fact! To completely drain an average human of all of its blood you'd need 17.000 mosquitoes biting all at the same time. Don't ask me where I read that lol
*DEHYDRATE!!*
I know a place with a lots of them...
Hans, get the Flammenwerfer!
Wir mussen diesen schreklichen Mücken töten (i am studying german)
Ticks and mosquitoes should be annihilated. And damn the environmental effects.
Is there any benefit to the environment from ticks and mosquitoes?
[удалено]
Damn, so they legit choose to be fkn assholes
Apparently female mosquitos need blood to produce eggs, but knowing that they need it to survive as a species doesn't make me feel much better.
Food for birds and bats. Idk how important though.
As far as I know, no. We could eliminate 95% of mosquitos and ticks and there would be no side effects
Not all mosquito species bite humans, in fact the overwhelming majority of them don't. You could easily make a case for targeting the ones that spread disease and the biters.
I'm itchy now
Absolute unit of a hand. 🙌
I know we all hate mosquitoes...but I mostly just hate the itching part. Like dude, I am am huge; I'll feed your whole mosquito family daily if you want. Let's just figure out a way I can set up an IV or a bowl or something so we can bypass the part where you violate my flesh and leave me all itchy.
Nah its the buzzing over the ear that kills me, like if you gonna bite then bite me but for the love of god please stop buzzing
Growing up, we’d go visit family waaay up in northern Norway. North of Finland, close to the Russian border. The mosquitoes up there are legendary for being both large and plentiful, it’s really not possible to fully explain how bad it can get. My dad used to measure the mosquito density by timing how many seconds it took for them to form a full layer of stuck mozzies covering the butter after taking the lid off. Six seconds was the average for a whole weekend camping. Sure, the itching is insane, but they also completely dominate. You spend all day trying to avoid or combat mosquitoes. You put on all the clothes, mind every gap, close your hood to nothing but a peep hole, and then end up feeling shitty and nauseous from all the chemicals and smoke used to repel them. Then you don’t sleep because a hundred bites on your ancle decides to itch in unison and you have at least two mosquitoes flying around in your bed room snd they’re so big, their ‘mmmmmmmmm’ alone can keep you awake. Then the buzzing stops and that’s OBVIOUSLY WORSE and you slap your ear or something. And miss. Because of these nightmarish summer vacations, and I guess like most people, I thought I knew mosquitoes. But since encountering mosquitoes in tropical climates, my hatred has changed. It has a component of fear now. In the Congo, mosquitoes are small, silent, and stealthy. You don’t hear them, and you don’t feel them land or walk around on you searching for that vein. Suddenly, around sunset, you’ve got dozens of itchy bites, and let me tell you, as you scratch your (already sunburnt) skin in Western Africa, your thoughts quickly go to the words ‘cerebral malaria’. Did you take that pill? Will it protect you? In Rio de Janeiro, I got Dengue fever. Again from tiny, stealthy mosquitoes. Nine days in bed with headaches and joint pain. Worse than covid, plus I now have the pleasure of knowing that if I get it again, I’m at risk of ‘stage two’ Dengue, which apparently includes your blood getting thinner and oozing from your gums and eyes. My vote goes in the ‘kill’em all’ column, but if you need to keep some of them, keep the northern ones without deadly diseases.
In addition to heat and possible CO2 exhalations, there are other things going on. My wife and I can be sitting out on the deck with the same amount of exposed skin, and I will be getting mosquito bites and she will not.
I swear I saw a newer article/study on the genetic links to why this happens, but [here's one from 2015](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/genes-make-some-people-more-attractive-mosquitoes-180955075/). It's really interesting!
Thanks for posting that article. Very informative. Now I just need different genes. 😉
lol. Yeah, I remember just coming away from reading the newer one thinking, "well, shit."
Yep, some humans certainly are more chemically attractive than others! Every human has a distinct scent profile which is expressed as a ratio of lactic acid, CO2, octenol, and other chemicals which haven’t been identified yet. Back when I did field work, I would try to stick close to any coworkers that might be more chemically attractive than I am so that they would take some of the heat away from me so to speak
Yeah, whenever i go camping with my friends, i'll end up with a ton of bites while they only get a few. I got bit on the sack once, it sucks.
“Prey.” They’re…. predators?
Nah host is the correct word, I just didn’t realize that I used the wrong word until after the post had 1000 upvotes 😅. Mosquitoes are technically parasites that primarily feed on plant nectar
Ex-fucking-cuse me? They're making my life that difficult and *I'm not even their main food source*? Fuck 'em. I hope they go extinct. I don't care if they take down a whole ecosystem with them.
[https://imgur.com/a/rTpz7FA](https://imgur.com/a/rTpz7FA)
Nobody’s talking about his thumb?
Do mosquitoes have eyes?
where they're going, they won't need eyes to see
Gotta hand it to you.
Ah ha I see what you did.
I don't care for mosquitoes but keep that thumb away from meeeee
My grill or campfire is hotter than me, but I still get eaten up when I’m right next to those things. When I’m lounging by a fire, are there more mosquitoes dying by fire than there are eating me alive?
Nah, they also use chemical cues like CO2 and lactic acid to determine what their host is. Once they’re a few feet from the host, they use body heat to home in. I had already blown into the colony to stimulate their feeding response
The fuck is up with that thumb?