# Is it possible to die from too many mosquito bites? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-die-from-too-many-mosquito-bites/603398 "2011-11-18T23:22:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-die-from-too-many-mosquito-bites/603398/1 "2011-11-18T23:22:01Z")
A friend of mine (being aware of my impressive status as a member of the SDMB :D) posed that question to me the other day. I honestly didn’t know the answer. I have read accounts of polar explorers describing wildlife being driven to exhaustion due to biting insects. (sorry, no cite) I’m putting the question to the vastly more knowledgeable (than I) members of the SDMB. Is it possible to be exsanguinated from mosquito bites alone? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-die-from-too-many-mosquito-bites/603398/2 "2011-11-18T23:38:07Z")
Is exsanguination a requirement or can we consider a toxic shock type syndrome from massive amounts of itchy, itchy mosquito saliva? ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-die-from-too-many-mosquito-bites/603398/3 "2011-11-19T00:07:26Z")
According to [http://www.mosquito.org/faq#blood](http://www.mosquito.org/faq#blood) mosquitoes will extract anywhere from 0.001 to 0.01 milliliter of blood from one feeding. So let’s assume the higher number of 0.01 all over your body. The average person has about 5 liters of blood in their body. So to lose even half your blood it would take A LOT of hungry mosquitos… ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-die-from-too-many-mosquito-bites/603398/4 "2011-11-19T02:53:03Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > According to [FAQs - American Mosquito Control Association](http://www.mosquito.org/faq#blood) mosquitoes will extract anywhere from 0.001 to 0.01 milliliter of blood from one feeding. So let’s assume the higher number of 0.01 all over your body. The average person has about 5 liters of blood in their body. So to lose even half your blood it would take A LOT of hungry mosquitos… **zoid** , I was thinking mainly of exsanguination, but I’ll certainly concede that death due to shock is perfectly plausible. When are they _ **not** _ hungry?! Hmmm… Okay, so that would mean a total of 2.5 million mosquito bites to drain 5 liters of blood. Correct? According to \ Wikipedia the loss of 40% (2 liters) would require aggressive resuscitation to prevent death. That would mean a total of only 1 million mosquito bites. I’ve been in a Gulf coast salt marsh at night when the wind died, and it sure as Hell _ **seemed** _ like there were way more than a million mosquitos in the surrounding air. ☹ And after just a few minutes. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-die-from-too-many-mosquito-bites/603398/5 "2011-11-19T03:02:59Z")
On the other hand it’s possible to die from a single mosquito bite if it infects you with Malaria, Dengue Fever, Yellow Fever, Viral Encephalitis, etc… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-die-from-too-many-mosquito-bites/603398/6 "2011-11-19T03:07:39Z")
Can you “undie” from a “vampire mosquito” bite? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-die-from-too-many-mosquito-bites/603398/7 "2011-11-19T03:28:43Z")
Some semi-recent threads with useful information: > **[Death by mosquito](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=429060)** > > Weird question that’s been bugging me for a while. I think I saw something on TV years ago that mentioned death by mosquito swarm… but after thinking about it I’m starting to believe that I imagined it… So… How many mosquitos (or mosquito bites)... > **[Could enough mosquitos make a person die of blood loss?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=434996)** > > Say you put a person into a sealed room with ten million mosquitos. Or a hundred million. Could that be an effective way of causing a horrible death? ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-die-from-too-many-mosquito-bites/603398/8 "2011-11-19T05:19:52Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Some semi-recent threads with useful information: > > [Death by mosquito - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=429060) > [Could enough mosquitos make a person die of blood loss? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=434996) Thanks, **Telemark**! 🙂 I found **rowrrbazzle** ’s post from the second thread you cited to be very interesting. > [@Could enough mosquitos make a person die of blood loss?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-enough-mosquitos-make-a-person-die-of-blood-loss/417721/8): > > Let’s say the average mosquito wheal is 5 mm in diameter. That gives it an area of about 19.6 sq mm. The area of an adult human’s skin is about 1.8 sq m, or 1800000 sq mm. Therefore your entire body would be covered in wheals by roughly 92000 mosquito bites. If that didn’t kill you by itself, you’d probably wish it had. So it looks like the average human doesn’t even _ **have** _ enough skin area, to acquire 1 million mosquito bites. Unless of course, they’re able to bite thru an \*\*\*already bitten \*\*\*area of skin. :eek: