My hypothesis is that there are certain breeds of mosquitoes that aren’t attracted to vegetarians. Here we have a number of breeds, and while I get bit less than my meat-eating compatriots (maybe it’s the meat sweats?), every summer I’ll still have more than a few dozen bites per month.
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Not even mindless bloodsuckers are willing to hang around near evangelical vegans.
Another factor in the seeming randomness of victim selection and the various conflicting stories of “I never got bit after I …” may be the rapid genetic drift of mosquito populations. As the article mentions, mosquitoes have many different cues available to them to find their blood meal, but genetics determines how sensitive each input is and also how they are weighted – result is that females whose genes lead them to a safe blood meal will reproduce, strengthening those traits in the local population. Females need a blood meal for each +300 egg “set”, and can lay 3 sets in their 1-2 month lifetime, so a successful hunting strategy propagates quickly through the local population turnover.
In regions where there are few meat eaters, there’s no evolutionary drive to strengthen the “home in on meat eater” receptor, so the trait is not selected for.
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Ok ok, I get it.
Then can we just skip the first part and get with the make them suffer thing?
If someone is actually able to make a ‘better mosquito’, doesn’t it seem natural to be impressed? Maybe that’s why it’s hard to be repelled by them?
Or maybe I don’t understand…
Good thing I’m not made of plastic. I mean, water will melt the shit out of sugar, but I’m mostly not made of that either.
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You can breed for stupidity:
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I’m not sure comparing a substance that was originally developed as a pesticide with a substance that is the source of all life on Earth is a very sound line of reasoning.
DEET manufacturers themselves recommend washing it off between uses and not applying it to broken skin or areas where you don’t really need it like under your clothes. It is relatively safe in small amounts, but so is nicotine I suppose.
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I expect that mosquitos would evolve to detect the side effects (breath odour, skin & sweat odour, etc) of the prevalent local diet. Those in West Bengal India are really good at detecting the local spices/herbs/ingredients, or the effects on humans that eat them. Those in central Ontario Canada are tuned for ground beef, french fries, etc.
If an Ontario mosquito ended up in West Bengal, India, I’d think it would be confused by the signals given off by the locals. Probably starve.
Sorta related… local central Ontario mosquitos cause me some distress (moderate swelly and reddening at the bite, mild itching). But when I was bitten in northern Venezuela, the itch was almost unbearable, but similar swelling and reddening. I figure my immune system was more effective against what I had grown up with; something in the Venezuelan mosquito got through the inch defences.
Hmmm… .“swelly” is not a word. Too bad, I like it.
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If it is created from an existing word using a valid grammar mechanism and conveys the intended meaning, it counts as a valid word for all purposes other than grammar snobbery and Scrabble.
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I don’t know how well they work, but there are mosquito traps that emit CO2 and heat to lure in mosquitoes, which die inside the device (the ones I first heard about use a propane tank).
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Heh, I was looking at insect repellents, and this speaks volumes:
Of course they try the “100% DEET free guaranteed to work wristband made out of ‘a proprietary blend of plant oils’” Then when that fails out comes the 98% DEET solution.
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Malaria both attracts and kills mosquitoes. No joke. Hosts smell different because of something the plasmodium produces and mosquitoes are attracted to that smell. Mosquitoes also die to malaria (but I don’t believe the fatalities rates are very high, it may be the exception more than the rule). So it’s like some jinn already granted a wish for an attractant that kills mosquitoes but was a dick about it. Clever bastards, those jinn.
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I grew up in a home that was not attached to the city water lines, so we had a well. Our water was very sulfuric, and to keep the mosquitoes away you could just hop into the shower, get out and not dry your hair, maybe put your clothes on without toweling off too. This would work for a couple hours or so. My father claimed that drinking the sulfur water on a regular basis worked even better, but that wasn’t a step I was willing to take.
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I got one of these for my yard - it relied on a chemical lure rather than burning propane. It literally caught thousands of mosquitos, sucked them into a fine net where the airflow dehydrated them to death. Would have been impressive if not for the fact it made not a noticeable difference in the hundreds of thousands of mosquitos in our yard. A tear in a salted sea - not worth it, completely ineffective.
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Maybe the genetic mechanism is a little like Sickle Cell? Which would just confirm that the gods are laughing at us.
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Have you seen some of the bullshit words that are ‘allowed’ in the goddamn Scrabble dictionary?
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Did KWYJIBO actually make it in?
Most traps lure biting insects with a combination of heat, CO2, and octenol, aka “mushroom alcohol”. This is a rather simplistic subset of the cues the insects use to find a blood meal, so sometimes a trap just draws in more mosquitos to your general vicinity, where they then choose the more attractive people a better bait than the octenol.
With a few exceptions, most mammal-seeking mosquito species prefer animals over humans, Sleep with a dog in your tent and you will be bitten less.
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Must be a combo of natural pheromones and lack of co2 exudation and who knows what else.
