Posted on 07/04/2008 4:34:10 PM PDT by Daffynition
After this weekend's barbeques and fireworks displays, you might wonder why some people wind up covered in mosquito welts and others are bite-free. It's not a coincidence. Each person's individual body chemistry determines how many mosquitoes will come calling.
According to Joe Conlon, a medical entomologist who advises the American Mosquito Control Association, the insects can detect their targets from nearly 100 feet away. But what are they seeking? Mostly the scent of carbon dioxide and lactic acid, two compounds that indicate to the hematophagous or blood-sucking pests that their next landing pad is nearby. (It's worth noting that when a female mosquito latches on to you, she's not looking for food; instead, she sucks out blood to help fertilize her eggs... that's why males don't "bite").
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
I don’t believe that garlic keeps skeeters at bay. There is relatively little that I cook that does not contain garlic, so I hardly ever go even a day without eating garlic, but I’m constantly covered in welts.
My Lush of a neighbor, years ago, kept open buckets all around his yard.The little miniature bloodsucking liberals would climb from their watery public housing projects and attack everyone but him.He was a 12 pack a day drinker, and never got bit once.Maybe it woulda been different if he drank Ripple or Thunderbird.
Saw a few greenheads but no skeeters so far.
The funny thing is poison ivy doesn’t bother me at all.
Hubby and I are polar opposites when it comes to skeeters and poison ivy.
I think the last of the t’storms are done for us. Are you down this way, or still “up north”?
Ingesting vinegar, as in Italian salad dressing, helps keep mosquitoes from biting you.
I’ve been blessed most of my adult life. Skeeters don’t bite me. Not so when I was a lad.
Down this way where they set the fireworks off 2 hours early due to the threat of rain and managed to do it during a storm. CI’s deck bar isn’t a bad place to watch them from although you miss the ground displays while keeping dry. Not raining now when they were scheduled :)
OMG! That’s hilarious!
We no got too many mosquitos here in SoCal.
Lots of illegals but not too many mosquitos.
Just wait until the child support people catch up with you.
Good article. I find that there are days every little blood sucker is after me, and leave the wife alone. A few days later, they go after her and don’t bother me at all.
The good Kyolic garlic supplements are many times stronger, as well as being from dehydrated raw garlic, than simply eating a bit of cooked garlic in your food. We live on a river and have a lot of mosquitos. I used to get lots of bites before I started taking it; of course, the raw, megadose capsules might not work the same for everybody. - I even get results with the cheaper Walmart Odorless Garlic. At least it’s odorless until it gets in the digestive system, so one doesn’t burp it up.
I am like you, I could eat poison ivy for lunch and be unaffected but Mrs Heatseeker breaks out if she comes anywhere near it. OTOH I am so attractive to mosquitoes if I could figure out a way to hook myself up to a bug zapper without doing myself in, I’d wipe out the species.
I only wish. I had 6 new bites before I even finished a glass of OJ this morning.
We had a sickly child last night, so hearing on the radio they were doing them 2 hours early clinched it for us that we weren’t going anywhere last night. How long you gonna be around? I haven’t been over to the Island since before softball season ended. But I have to be there at the crack of dawn in the morning.
I’m doing the readings for church service tomorrow, but the Island service is at 8am -— I’m generally not awake, let alone functional at that time. LOL!!!!
Thanks for the info, I will check it out.
When you figure that out let me know, between us we could probably do DelMarVa a huge favor!!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.