# Some questions about mosquitoes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 3, 2023, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545 "2023-09-03T12:04:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/21 "2023-09-03T17:09:22Z")
> [@mozchron](#): > > Don’t scratch your bites, this will make them last longer, itch more, and can cause secondary infections if you open them up. Use very hot water instead, it will completely kill the itch for up to 8 hours due to histamine depletion. What I do is put a metal spoon in hot water to heat up the spoon and then apply it to the bite. Using two spoons is quicker since I can alternate with one on the bite and one in the water heating. After about 5 or so applications of the hot spoon, the itch is gone and doesn’t come back. I’ve also used [pen devices](https://www.amazon.com/bite-away%C2%AE-Insect-Chemical-Free-Treatment/dp/B08TRW66F6) which apply heat, and they work as well. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/22 "2023-09-03T17:20:15Z")
Yeah you can use anything that’s hot. But hot water is free 🙂 The heat should be hot enough to be uncomfortable but NOT hot enough to burn you. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2023, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/23 "2023-09-04T20:39:49Z")
Perhaps @mozchron can explain my mosquito experience. For my first 18 years I reacted to mosquitos the same away most people do. I got bitten and they itched for a couple days. Then I got a job in a biology lab, working with a bunch of chemicals of which likely the most notable was amyl acetate. As long as I worked in that lab (4 years) I was never bitten. Since then I am bitten occasionally, but the bites do not swell and do not itch. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/24 "2023-09-05T05:41:23Z")
This is also believed to be one way people can develop allergies to beef and pork. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/25 "2023-09-05T05:43:27Z")
I’ve used ice, which also works, and hydrocortisone (or another steroid) cream does the job as well. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/26 "2023-09-05T05:56:22Z")
> [@Orville\_mogul](#): > > This morning I squashed a mosquito in the kitchen and it released a rather dramatic splotch of blood. Clearly it had eaten recently. But the odd thing was that neither I nor any of my family members had been bitten… … as far as you are aware. I don’t react to mosquito bites much of the time. I have a tiny home office in my backyard that is fully screened, but occasionally a mosquito gets in when I open the door. Yesterday a mosquito was whining around in front of my computer monitors so I could see it very clearly. It was not blood engorged when I first saw it. I failed despite several attempts to kill it but then it disappeared. 10 minutes later it reappeared, and was blood engorged. Unquestionably it had bitten me in the meantime but there were no indications of that from my perspective. My money would be on the mosquito having bitten you or your family without your knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/27 "2023-09-05T10:26:28Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > My money would be on the mosquito having bitten you or your family without your knowledge. could be. Also, if what @mozchron says is correct, it is possible that it was from a bite I got two days earlier (I think I did get bitten then). Could be either. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/28 "2023-09-05T10:27:57Z")
> [@mozchron](#): > > We can get usable DNA out of mosquito bloodmeals out of curiosity, what do you use the DNA for? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/29 "2023-09-05T11:29:56Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > This is also believed to be one way people can develop allergies to beef and pork. I think that (Alpha-gal reaction) is more a feature of tick bites than mosquito bites, I don’t recall hearing about that with skeeters. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/30 "2023-09-05T12:34:22Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Perhaps @mozchron can explain my mosquito experience. For my first 18 years I reacted to mosquitos the same away most people do. I got bitten and they itched for a couple days. Then I got a job in a biology lab, working with a bunch of chemicals of which likely the most notable was amyl acetate. As long as I worked in that lab (4 years) I was never bitten. Since then I am bitten occasionally, but the bites do not swell and do not itch. You will generally get used to bites over time and stop reacting/react less (unless you get hypersensitive and then it’s _WAY_ worse). I have no explanation about your chemical lab job. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/31 "2023-09-05T12:35:12Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > This is also believed to be one way people can develop allergies to beef and pork. No, that’s a reaction to (certain) tick bites. Alpha-Gal syndrome. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/32 "2023-09-05T12:37:10Z")
> [@Orville\_mogul](#): > > > [@mozchron](#): > > > > We can get usable DNA out of mosquito bloodmeals > > out of curiosity, what do you use the DNA for? Many, many things. To screen for pathogens (we might extract RNA in this case depending on what we’re looking for). To sequence the genome. We do a ton of genetics and transgenic works, so we extract DNA to confirm genetic edits or to genotype mosquitoes. And a million other things; it’s our bread and butter. The bloodmeal DNA extractions were/are used to identify pathogens in the bloodmeal, genotype those pathogens, identify the species that the mosquito fed on, or even identify the people the mosquito fed on. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/33 "2023-09-05T12:40:10Z")
> [@mozchron](#): > > or even identify the people the mosquito fed on. is it used for police forensics? ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/34 "2023-09-05T12:43:25Z")
I think that would drive me bananas ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/35 "2023-09-05T12:44:39Z")
> [@Orville\_mogul](#): > > > [@mozchron](#): > > > > or even identify the people the mosquito fed on. > > is it used for police forensics? Funny you should ask that. When we started this (back when I was a wee graduate student) we used the same kits the FBI used to genotype blood from crime scenes. To answer, yes it’s happened. It’s not super common but it has been done. Here is a paper describing one such example: > **[Genotyping of human DNA recovered from mosquitoes found on a crime scene](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0531513105016444?via%3Dihub)** > > Many mosquitoes species are man parasitical biters commonly found in the south of Italy by crime scene investigators. Some authors already demonstrate… ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/36 "2023-09-05T13:50:31Z")
> [@Orville\_mogul](#): > > I think that would drive me bananas Actually, it gave me headaches, but it did lead to an aversion to bananas, which has fortunately gone away. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/37 "2023-09-05T14:50:10Z")
I beleive you were also working on some cool stuff with genetics for mosquito population control? Something about breeding sterile males, I think, and releasing them in the wild to mate with the females, who also produce sterile males? You shared this here but I cannot find the thread. Any progress on that project? Fascinating stuff, BTW! ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/38 "2023-09-05T15:11:58Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > For my first 18 years I reacted to mosquitos the same away most people do. I got bitten and they itched for a couple days. Same here, I used to react until sometime in my mid-teens but for the last 40 years or so I don’t react to the bites. Oddly enough, I am allergic to trees, pollen, grass etc. with hay fever so there is no histamine shortage in my body from other causes. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/39 "2023-09-05T15:21:25Z")
Would it be possible to get mosquito shots to build up a tolerance to bites in the same way that people get allergy shots to build up a tolerance to common allergens? ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545/40 "2023-09-05T16:02:38Z")
Probably but there are many, many different species of mosquitoes; you’d have to do all of them. So probably not logistically feasible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-mosquitoes/989545.md?page=3)