My daughter is very susceptible to mosquito bites. It takes no time at all for her to be attacked. She goes outside for 15 minutes, even with insect repellent on, and she still comes back in with a couple bites.
Is there a reason for this? Why should she be the one attacked? She doesn’t wear any perfume, and she washes with the same soap as all the rest of us. Her skin is fairer than the rest of us. Is it her body’s pH? What’s going on here, and is there something she can do, aside from wearing turtlenecks and corduroy slacks all summer long?
really though, this happens to me too. i was just camping this weekend, i put tons of the bug stuff on me. sprayed “deet” all over my body, and my tent. put “green bean” from EMS on me as well. still got eaten up. i don’t think the bug sprays are 100% effective.
I’ve heard that different factors, including eating certain foods, can make a person more succeptible to being bit by mosquitoes. For some reason they especially like it when you eat a lot of bananas-I guess it’s the potassium.
Two points: First off, most bug “repellents” don’t really actively repell bugs, they just mask the human scent that they home in on. This means that if there’s ANY un-repelled skin, the bugs can and will still find you.
Secondly, a little off-topic, but never spray a tent with bug spray: A sprayed tent will not be waterproof in that spot. If your tent leaks, you’d be better off just sleeping under the sky.
Mosquitos are attracted to the color black so it would be a good idea to avoid wearing that color to help avoid those insects. They also seem attracted to diabetics who may have a higher bld sugar level than normal.
I have the same problem. I always get eaten alive. True story:
Over my future in-laws the week before my wedding. Everyone is milling about on the porch. I was inside for a while, and stepped out for maybe a minute. I commented shortly after getting outside that there was a bit of a mosquito problem.
“Mosquitos” said her father “We don’t have any Mosquitos out here.” I showed them the several whelts that were developing on my legs and arms. They had been outside for about an hour, and of the 4-5 people out there, no one had been bitten. I came outside for a minute, and had no less than 3 bites. My WAG as to why… It’s just the way you smell. My guess is that my natural smells tell mosquitos “Hey, meal here!” much moreso than others. Might also have to do with the area and the species of mosquito. I’ve heard of mosquitos in Alaska so dense and viscious in their attacks that some victims go into anaphalaxis just from the sheer number of bites. In New England, even on the swamp where I grew up, the mosquitos, even dense clouds of them, didn;t bite THAT often. But they always bite me…
Other than my total MPSIMS style response, I have nothing to add other than anecdotal evidence that YES mosquitos DO bite some people MUCH more than others.
I am glad to see that I am not alone in getting eaten alive. I am not sure about the color of clothing theory though. My bf and I were sitting on his back porch naked and I ended up with over 20 bites while he didn’t have any.
The best defense I have found are the citronella candles. (We didn’t have any the night I got eaten alive.) “Off” used to work on me as a kid, but I generally forget to put it on before I go outside now. I would ask your daughter’s doctor if there is anything he can perscribe or recommend. Good luck.
Tents: The bug spray decreases the surface tension of the water, so that water droplets are smaller and can more easily fit through the spaces between the fibers of the fabric. If you have a plastic tent, this doesn’t apply, but most tents are made out of ordinary fibrous materials. Eventually, when all of the spray is washed away, it’ll be back to normal.
Mosquitoes: Another possibility is that one person is not getting bit more than the other, but that one person is more sensative than another. I have a cousin, for instance, who spends a lot of time outdoors in mosquito country, and gets bitten as much as anyone else (sometimes he catches them in the act). However, he never gets welts from it, presumably due to having built up a tolerance. Since the bite itself causes essentially no discomfort, he doesn’t care about mosquitoes, and usually doesn’t even notice them.
I have always been susceptible to mosquito bites. Just yesterday I was spending some time outside and I had to throw on a pair of black wind pants for protection (the temperature was about 86 deg F) It was uncomfortable, but I wasn’t getting bit. My mother, on the other hand, never gets bit by mosquitoes.
I don’t like to wear spray because I can’t stand the greasy feeling of the lotion. Another problem with mosquito sprays is that DEET was developed as a paint remover. Get it on a plastic object(like binoculars) and your fingers will be coated with an oily layer of surface plastic.