You’re outside in your home backyard, enjoying the bright sun on a hot summer day when suddenly, you hear the slight buzz of an insect. You just think it’s a small fly flying around your smoothie, but seconds later you see a bump on your arm form. It’s a mosquito bite! It starts itching real bad and a lump appears on your skin.
Uh oh… what should I do now…
Why do the mosquitoes in my backyard bite?
Mosquitoes, unlike wasps and bees, have a purpose behind that big and itching bite. To start off, not all mosquitoes actually bite, only the females do. The females need blood from other sources other than their own to nurture their young, and by doing so they can hatch as much as a hundred eggs per bite!
Males generally do not bite humans, for they only stick to their routine diet of sugar in the nectar of plants.
Why does the bite itch?
When a mosquito bites you, it sucks up your blood with a stinger and leaves a bit of saliva behind. The chemicals in the saliva trigger the body to produce an itching hormone called histamine. That histamine is transferred to the bite location on your skin and makes you scratch the bite. Annoying, right?
Usually, a mosquito bite lasts for 1-2 days, but for more sensitive groups it lasts up to 5 days. If the bite lasts for more than a week, that means the mosquito has left a disease inside you. Uh oh, you should contact your doctor immediately if that is so!
Prevention Tips
Now you’re probably asking, “How in the world do I prevent mosquitoes? They’re everywhere!” Maybe not everywhere if you follow these helpful tips:
- Don’t scratch the bite. I know it’s really hard to do that, but you may risk getting an infection if you do so. Even I accidentally do that sometimes.
- Rub apple slices against the bite. Sounds weird, right? But it’s actually really helpful: an apple is a source of antihistamine, which significantly reduces the pain and itching on your bite. Other antihistamines also work, such as OTC(over-the-counter) medicines, but use natural sources as a pain-reliever. Nature’s your best friend.
- Use natural bug-spray when you go outside in highly populated mosquito areas. If you don’t have bug spray, you’ll be candy to the mosquitos.
- Be clad in light-colored protective clothing. Protective clothing can prevent mosquitoes from reaching your skin. The less skin, the less mosquitoes are going to bite you. Also, mosquitoes are typically attracted to dark clothing, so wear light colored clothes as your own repellent.
- Get a mosquito attractive trap. What I mean is a “bulb” that emits mosquito-attractive light, which kills the mosquito with an electrifying SNAP!
- Finally, if mosquitoes come and get you in your sleep, get a mosquito tent. What do I mean? I mean this:
It doesn’t cost a lot, but it’s really helpful if you go on vacation to subtropical places, such as Taiwan and Indonesia.