I know that nobody likes them, but what is your level of hatred for the little bloodsuckers?
Some people I know don’t seem to notice them much at all, others will swat a bit but not seem to be too bothered, others feel a bite but have no aftereffect, others don’t notice being bitten but get welts later. Where do you fall on the spectrum of mosquito-hatred?
Me, the buzzing of even one for just a second drives me to near insanity, it hurts when they bite, and itches immediately for several days, with unpretty bumps and red welts for the duration. So yeah, I really, really hate the buggers. I love being outdoors - from gardening and bbqs to camping and hiking, and I hate to an irrational level the amount of enjoyment they suck from my activities. I’m not fond of blackflies, horseflies, or deerflies either, but none of them make my blood boil like skeeters.
Oh, and I have yet to find any kind of repellant that is very effective for me - they seem to have a particular fondness for me, and apparently consider bugsprays to be a tasty sauce.
Meh, I mean, I’d prefer not to get bitten, but a few bites don’t really bother me, I just put something on them so I don’t scratch myself raw and I’m good to go.
My 5 year old daughter on the other hand, each and every mosquito bite she gets, turns into a welt that’s, literally, 3-5 inches in diameter and warm to the touch. I feel bad for her. The first time it happened, I took her to three separate doctors,* convinced she had Lyme disease (the center was white giving it the bulls eye appearance). They all agreed it was just an allergic reaction to the bite. I’m hoping it goes away as she gets older.
*Her ped and two acquaintances, so I only had to pay for one appointment.
Ouch, poor girl. My son is the same way. After a day out in mosquito territory, he looks like he’s got mutant chicken pox or something, yet they don’t seem to bother him at all, neither during the feasting or after.
You may or may not want to hear this, but I have the same reaction and at 27, it’s just as bad as it ever was. Mosquito bites are a special kind of torture for me, my ex just doesn’t understand why I have to flee inside within 5 minutes of going out the back in the height of mosquito season.
Aaaaaugh!! That too! I have thankfully never been sick from mosquitoes, but the fact that it’s not good enough for them to just be horribly annoying but also deliver malaria and West Nile makes me murderous with rage!
That actually makes me feel a bit better. I know that some allergic reactions can get worse over time. With how bad this was right from the first time it happened, my fear was that at some point it might get to the point of anaphylaxis. So far she’s shown no symptoms beyond anything dermatological.
Obviously I can’t guarantee it wouldn’t get worse for her, but in my case it’s only ever remained a skin-level reaction, I don’t seem to have any issues with breathing or tingling or anything like that. Just the interminable, maddening, hot itching. Even when I’ve been bitten on my neck or ears or face.
I get welts like that too, and have all my thirty-four years. I’ve heard, though, sometimes it’s not actually the bite that causes the reaction but an allergy to whatever plant they lurk in when not out sucking our blood. This possibility makes sense to me for two reasons: not every bite I get swells up that bad, some remain dime-sized rather than Kennedy half-dollar size b. I have a lot of issues with plants and their pollen anyway.
Oh, and I hate those little bitches a lot. What the hell are they good for beyond food for birds and bats?
I can answer that quite easily. Mosquitoes are the only insect I would ever intentionally kill. I see no point in killing any other ones.
Hmmm… let me hedge just a bit. I would kill any insect that attacks me with the intent to steal my precious bodily fluids. So I suppose I would also kill ticks, fleas, bedbugs, etc. But mosquitoes are the only “attacking” insect I really ever encounter, and because I live in San Francisco, I almost never encounter mosquitoes anyway. (One more great thing about SF!)
Surprisingly enough I found out that both male and female mosquitoes are nectarivorous, and it’s only when they’re breeding that the females drink blood. So I don’t know if they might be part of the pollenation chain of some plants or not?
But yes, I would like to see them nuked from orbit.
I hate them with the passion of 1,000 Spanish soap operas. I am extremely allergic to them to the point where getting bitten actually burns. The burning and itching will wake me up out of a deep sleep and if I don’t go take an antihistamine immediately the swelling is horrifying. One night I got bitten but I didn’t want to get out of bed so I just laid there until morning and when I got up the bite spot was so bad that it looked like someone cut a baseball in half and implanted it under my skin. It was so big I immediately took a benadryl and then took pictures because I didn’t think anyone would ever believe me that the bite got that big. Pictures have since been deleted but it was seriously a terrible morning.
Mosquitoes are the one species I would happily make extinct. I’d be delighted to see them wiped out.
They never bothered me as a kid, but I developed a huge allergic-type reaction to them in my early 20s. The bites weren’t just itchy, they were as agonising as burns. Literally like someone had burned my skin with a cigar. They swelled up to hen-egg sized lumps on my skin. Agony. I had to take days off work because I was in too much pain to concentrate.
The effect has subsided somewhat over the years, and now they’re only mildly painful and incredibly irritating. But I would absolutely love to condemn those little bastards to the torments of a firey hell for all eternity.
I hate them too. Especially the really hungry ones that loved me so much in Maine and Alaska. For some reason I would thank a god for, we don’t have them much here on Puget Sound. I can’t tell the rest of you how pleasant it is to sit outside on a summer evening and not see even one of those bastards.
They don’t bug me (heh) much unless I’m somewhere where I’m stuck in swarms of them. I always feel them bite and swat them before they really get going. I don’t often get much of a skin reaction and as long as I don’t itch them, bites clear up fast.
Hate mosquitoes, but don’t have much of a problem with them. I like seeing Dexter swat that dude on his arm though.
I would like it even better if Dexter set up a kill room for horse flies. Just as I settled onto my pool float this afternoon, two of those assholes started buzzing me–one bit my ass, neither would give up even when I ducked under the water and splashed them. They were huge motherfuckers who totally ruined my plan for the day.
I wish mosquitoes a lifetime in hell, but I wish those horse flies the agony of a slow kill.