Why didn't these mosquito bites raise a welt?

Factual Questions
1

Yesterday my husband and I went on a day trip to Bulls Island, SC (absolutely fantastic, by the way - I have to say I’ve never had to yell and wave a hat at an alligator ten feet away to get it to stop blocking the trail before.) Amazing birds, rather up close and personal wildlife, what has to be the loveliest beach in South Carolina (not that that’s necessarily a high bar)… and holy shit mosquitoes.

Now, we live in Columbia. So it’s not like I came over from some other continent and just met these new mosquito things. I am familiar with the concept. But these were intense. I was trying to avoid too much bug spray because I’m 23 weeks pregnant and it’s one of those things that has conflicting recommendations, but there had been cautions about the bugs so I’d sprayed my hat and overshirt. I am usually a mosquito magnet (seriously, they LOVE me), but my husband isn’t, so he opted out of the spray.

The second we walked into the interior of the island they swarmed. Flights of them hung around in the air having some sort of professional conference in sunbeams, which is a thing I have never seen before. I looked down and saw one trying to feed on me through two shirts and a bra; I looked over at my husband and he had at least ten on his back going at him through his shirt. You have never seen a bunch of chemicals sprayed around on a pregnant woman so fast. It was unreal!

So the bug spray worked, but I know I got a ton of bites anyway. Now normally I react like hell to these things - I get huge welts, and since they like me so much any mosquito contact results in a bunch of them. We almost got carried off by those fuckers and I have not one welt? I squished one in mid-drink, which is guaranteed to really leave a mark on me, and nothing!

So were they a) different mosquitoes from the ones we have a few hundred miles away? They’d have to be special barrier island wildlife refuge mosquitoes; I have certainly been bitten by Lowcountry bugs before and welted up; b) affected somehow by the pregnancy - depressed immune system? or c) something else entirely?

Seriously, today I’m not itching at all (except where I sunburned the back of my hands a little.) This is unheard of for me in a mosquito encounter. What gives?

2

That’s my guess. There are at least 61 species of mosquito in South Carolina and it is likely you react more to some than others ( those welts are basically low-grade allergic reactions to mosquito spit ). You just happened to luck onto one that doesn’t hit you as hard. I’ve had similar variability as well - from little red spots to quarter-sized white welts. That a particular species predominates on an island reserve you haven’t run across before elsewhere doesn’t shock me.

Marvelous little miracles of engineering, the mosquito. How I hate them :D.

3

I have heard that welts are caused by what the mosquitoes are in contact with more than by their bites, like the plants they spend their time in when not swarming us. I get welts and I’m allergic to a large number of plants, so maybe. Since you were traveling, maybe you were away from native plants you’re sensitive to.

4

Maybe you are already just* one big welt*! :slight_smile:

5

Never felt a welt kick before!