I woke up a bit itchy. Eventually I get sick of scratching/become conscious and not trying to scratch the seven or so itchy parts of my body, so I wake up. I was thinking that it was fleas since I just put Atvantage on the cat and they might by hungry.
But then I see it. A dead mortherfucking mosquito laying right there where my covers were before I woke up in agony. Damn thing just crawled into bed and flapped around under the covers biting all that she could all night long.
Of course, I just happen to react very badly to mosquitos. Right now eatch bite site is an irregular white bump about an inch to two inches in diameter, resting on top of a subtly but huge red swelling that justs out about an inch and makes me look lumpy and deformed. And they might get worse. On the imfamous lets-go-to-Maui-and-get-fifty -mosquito-bites trip, I had giant white swellings the size of salad plates.
I hate fucking mosquitos. I wish species-wide genocide on them. I don’t even care if that fucks up the ecosystem forever. Humanity just aint worth it with mosquitos around. Why do I have to be their goddess? I’ll come back from an outing with ten mosquito bites when my companions have none. They love me and want to commune with my blood. But I hate them more than I’ve ever hated anything in my life. I just know I’m going to die of malaria.
Okay, well time to try to go back to sleep as an itchy ball of itching itch. Wish me luck.
It’s amazing, there’s someone else who reacts like me to the little fuckers.
I didin’t always react like this to them, though. THey used to be small bites. Now, when I get bit, I get HUGE swellings that take at LEAST a week to go down.
My God, you react to them even more than I do! I fucking hate mosquitoes. I too get a million bites where somebody else might get a few. And I hate whatever bit me a couple of days ago on the legs (some sort of flea, I think) that left welts nearly the size of a half-dollar.
My advice – stay away from the East Coast. I can get 10 mosquito bites just getting the mail. (We had an excellent season for mosquitos – a rainy spring followed by hot, humid days.)
My totally unsubstantiated theory is that you can get acclimated to mosquito bites from a certain area after a while. When I moved to my current area, the mosquitos really bugged me and I itched constantly. Now, they really bug me, but I don’t itch so much.
Um, I really don’t think inch-sized - or SALAD PLATE-sized - lumps are a normal reaction to mosquito bites. See your doctor.
Anyway, I sympathize. Winnipeg is the mosquito capital of the world, but in downtown Montreal all we have to deal with are the mayflies, and they don’t even bite, just turn up everywhere for one day and then die all over everything. I love not having mosquitos.
The same mosquito bit you seven times? Don’t they just normally bite once, get their fill of bloody fluid and then move along to feed their young? I’d check for fleas again.
I know this is the Pit & everything… I react like you do, well, maybe not salad plate, but quater to half dollar sized lumps that hurt as much as they itch.
Sanity saver #1 - Benedryl capsules.
Sanity saver #2 - Hot water. IF you can immerse the bite under the hottest water you can stand for about 30 seconds. You’ll know it’s working when the bite suddenly itches MADLY and then turns into a much smaller, harder white bump. Relief lasts 4-8 hours.
Biggest welt I ever had from a mosquito was eight inches across. Usually they stay under six inches or so. I’ve reacted this way to mosquitoes ever since I was born. Nothing much the doctors can do, just gotta wait it out and try not to scratch my skin off entirely.
I hate mosquitoes too.
I end up with baseball sized lumps if I get bit in the right place - as does my daughter and my father. If you go to the doctor, they put you on steriods - heavy duty ones - which they don’t like to do - and industrial strength Benedryl - which makes you non-functional. So I live. Besides, the mosquito is the Minnesota state bird - I’d be at the doctor every week. So I stay inside, especially around dusk, wear bug spray and avoid skeeter zones if I am outside.
(But at least I don’t have an allergic reaction to peanuts. It isn’t life threatening or anything.)
I had the same skeeter under the covers thing this Spring. Speaking of getting bit in the right places, I had four bites between my bellybutton and inner thigh (use your imagination, I’m female, BTW), places I usually don’t get bitten by anyone or anything. All blew up to stellar sizes, all itched like hell. It was not the most comfortable week while the itching and swelling went down.
Mosquitoes will bite multiple times if they are trapped, it seems. This has happened before. One time I got a mosquito stuck in my sock. and when I took it off I had a neat little circle of bites around my ankle.
The worst is getting bitten in places like your ear or between your toes. The agony!
My whole body feels like it is on fire. I’m gonna go take the hottest bath I can handle.
At least now I know I’m not a total freak for reacting this way to a few mosquito bites.
I always seem to get bit in places like knees, elbows and the like. There’s nothing so special as a big fat skeeter bite on the back of your knee in the 100 degree+ weather.
Splendid.
Thankfully, this year has had a very low mosquito count in San Jose.