Posted on 06/03/2021 6:22:38 PM PDT by SamAdams76
I spent my morning walking the dog and serving as an all-you-can-eat brunch buffet for my local mosquito population. It got me thinking about the little buzzers and prompted several crucial questions in my head. I now have the answers.
Death by mosquito draining?
For an average person, losing two liters of blood becomes life-threatening. The average mosquito bite drains 0.01 to 0.001 milliliters of blood. Thus it would take somewhere between 200,000 and 2 million mosquito bites to kill you from blood loss. For the average adult male (a.k.a. me), that works out to between 68 and 680 bites for every square inch of skin. (Converted from average body surface area of adult male: 1.9 square meters.)
Optimal temperature for mosquitoes?
Mosquitoes are happiest and most active when the temperature hovers around 80 degrees. They become sluggish once temperatures dip to 60 degrees and most species cease activity entirely somewhere in the mid-fifties.
Largest mosquito in the world?
The so-called “elephant mosquito” (toxorhynchites speciosus) can grow up 1.5 inches in length and lives in coastal Australia. If it drank blood, it might take fewer than 200,000 bites to drain you dead. But it doesn’t — it feeds on plant juices and nectar.
Number of mosquito species?
There are approximately 3,500 species of mosquitoes worldwide. Approximately 175 have been found in the United States, but the numbers are fewer in Northeast states, including Massachusetts (~50 species), New York (~70), and Maryland (~60).
Do mosquitoes bite some people more than others?
Yes, for a variety of reasons, including your blood type, temperature, clothing color, alcohol consumption, and more.
I eat lots of roasted garlic and fried onions, and haven’t been bitten by a skeeter in 20yrs, nor have been stung by any bee or wasp.
If you smell like Listerine, I don’t want to know you. If you smell like garlic & onions, we’re friends.
There were serious hair issues back then.
I remember when all of the parks in Tokyo were shut down because the skeeters were carrying something.
A friend of mine worked on the Alaska Pipeline. I visited him a 150 miles north of Valdez around the summer of 1974. I opened the door of my pickup truck, stepped out, and was INSTANTLY covered in huge mosquitoes. I’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t know how those workers survived building that project. I pretty much said “Hi” to my buddy and skedaddled back to Valdez.
Everything in Australia can kill you, that is well known.
I caught three different strains of Malaria in 1985 from “adventure travel” into denied areas of Burma, Vivax, Falciprium and Cerebral Malaria. It nearly killed me.
I was taking my anti malaria pills without fail, chloroquinine and Fansidar but the malaria strains in Burma had evolved a resistance to those prophylactic drugs.
My brother was stationed in Alaska once for a time and said there were reports of bush pilots having gone down who died from blood loss and the venom from the mosquitoes.
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Mosquitos have venom they inject? I thought it was just some saliva they left behind....
Well, not technically venom, but it isn’t quite just saliva either.
It has anticoagulants and other proteins in the saliva that you react to allergically.
Either way, the people died a reaction to too much mosquito saliva.
My experience, as a cold blooded woman who occasionally gets bitten but more so doesn’t like that buzzing in my ears is to sit next to a hot blooded male person. They act as the bug zapper for me. Hubby qualifies.
A person who doesn’t know how to protect themselves from them will be gone after a few days in a marshy environment.
>> It might be the alcohol in my blood content.
More than likely the alcohol on your breath — seriously.
I rarely have a problem with my scotch and stogie.
Fishing on Matagorda Bay, TX, in the 1950s, one uncle was swarmed so fiercely, he became extremely ill, swelled up, turned an angry shade of red, sweated profusely, and I thought he was done for (I was 8 yr old).
I don’t think it’s just the amount of blood loss that’s the problem, rather the injected blood thinners and toxins.
I take 8 heads of garlic and roast them in the oven, pop out the cloves and minch them, mix in some melted butter then refrigerate. I always have garlic ready.🤗
I get 3 3lb bags of peeled cloves from Amazon, and roast 3lbs at a time in EVOO, turning frequently. Put in plastic containers w/ oil, they’ll last for many months. I share with family and friends, too.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DC1KXDY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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