Mosquitoes

by Alex Zidock

Revenge! I took a clear shot glass and inverted it over the mosquito on my forearm. She was gorging herself on my blood. “I’ll fix you, you little bloodsucker,” I told myself. I flexed my muscle because I heard somewhere that you can trap a mosquito’s proboscis in your skin while she’s sucking your blood. The theory is she will eventually explode.

Sounds reasonable! Really?

Mosquitoes have two little pumps in their heads to extract blood using six micro-needles she sticks into your skin. She also has a nerve in her abdomen that shuts off the pumps in her head to stop filling her belly when it’s full. I say “she” because only the female bites for blood.

As long-ago news commentator Paul Harvey would say, “Now for the rest of the story.”

You cannot make a mosquito explode by trapping its proboscis in your skin.

However, when researchers severed the nerve in one of the bugger’s abdomen, her little pumps kept pumping, and the bloodsucker did overfill and explode.

See MOSQUITOES, page 43

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Mosquitoes

From page 42

I and mosquitoes have a lot in common. We like beer and women, and we operate best at 80 degrees. But they love me, and I hate them.

There are upwards of 3,500 species of mosquitoes worldwide, and about 150 different species have been identified in the United States. While most mosquitoes are vegetarians and rather suck sugar from plants, only the female is a bloodsucker. They bite, and I welt up. I get welts on my arms so big my friends think I’ve been bulking on Wheaties and weights. Mosquitoes, like all insects, are coldblooded and, as a result, cannot regulate their body temperature. Basically, their temperature is the same as their surroundings. They hibernate in winter, can’t function below 50 degrees F but relish the balmy 80s. From the first warm summer afternoons, the pregnant females fly with a mission. They need protein in mammal blood to nurture their eggs to maturity.

As soon as I open the patio door, females detect my body emitting carbon dioxide from 100 feet away. They attack. They land. They stick their proboscis through my epidermis. If I’m lucky, I swat before they spit saliva into me. If I’m slow on the swat, that saliva contains an anticoagulant that keeps my blood from clotting while they suck it up. Other allergic stuff in the spit triggers a release of histamine that causes itching and swelling.

And I’ve learned female mosquitoes are more attracted to those who drink beer and to pregnant women. Studies are unsure why they like beer drinkers, but it seems pregnant women produce more carbon dioxide, attracting mosquitoes. Their body temperature is higher, and that also attracts mosquitoes. Besides the bumps and itching, mosquitoes transmit at least five different diseases. The best known is Malaria. West Nile virus is on the rise in North America. Lesser known conditions include dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis. You can do lots around your house, like making sure there are no old tires, tin cans, or other vessels that collect rainwater where females deposit eggs for incubation. If it’s a small pond or birdbath on your property, you can buy a product that is harmless to birds and animals but kills the mosquito larva. Swat!