My wife and I woke up with five mosquito bites between us. Did that mean there were were five bugs in the room, or one bug going on a tasting menu?
Also, a lot of the bites were on our ankles. Is that because they simply are targets of opportunity, or do the bugs focus in by IR and find the veins(?) there?
Unless a mosquito is disturbed, it will usually take the entire blood meal from one bite.
They may possibly go for the ankles because the skin may be thinner and less hairy there.
So it’s disturbed mosquitoes, interrupted during their meals, that spread malaria/dengue/etc. - they bite an infected person, are disturbed mid-meal, and bite someone else, infecting them?
No, they are spread the next time the mosquito takes a blood meal. It takes about a week for the malarial parasite, for example, to develop within the mosquito. The parasite is injected with saliva when the mosquito bites; it doesn’t have time to migrate from the digestive system to the salivary gland between bites in a short period of time.
No, that’s not how it works. After being aquired by the mosquito from feeding on an infected host, the pathogen needs time to develop in the mosquito before its able to be transmitted to another host by a subsequent feeding event. The pathogen needs to infect the mosquito midgut, disseminate out of the midgut, and infect the mosquito salivary glands before it can be transmitted. This takes time - its called the “Extrinsic Incubation Period”, or EIP, of the pathogen, and varies from days to weeks depending on the pathogen, mosquito and temperature (and can vary by the genetics of both the mosquito and pathogen).
This time period is the reason why reducing a mosquitoes lifespan is so effective at controlling disease. This is why residual DDT spraying on the walls of huts in Africa almost eliminated malaria - the DDT didn’t reduce the mosquito population size - it increased their mortality rate, meaning that fewer mosquitoes survived through the EIP and became infectious.
Mosquitoes that do not get a full bloodmeal will feed again. But each of you had >5 bites? Were you exposed to mosquitoes (i.e. an open window et…)? If there was only a single mosquito in the room, thats too many bites. Maybe you have bedbugs?
And many mosquitoes bite around the ankles because they are attracted to volatile components that come off feet.
Interesting about the stinky feet. Here’s another mystery: I’ve had “tracks”, each about 1/4" apart, of mosquito (or so I think) bites, maybe 3 or 4, small little bumps, each itching like hell, especially in a cumulative effect.
Diagnosis?
Also, a slight hijack: Cold compress or hot compress to alleviate itch? How does calamine lotion work?
Yours,
Multiple bites in a line are a hallmark of bedbugs :eek:
:eek::eek:
Shit. I’ll have to luck up what to do…
This is classic bedbug sign. Was this at home? Have you traveled recently (in the last month or two)?
Also, here is some good info on bedbugs:
If you need more info, PM me - my research is all mosquitoes now, but I did research on bedbugs for years. Hate the little bastards.