subject: Why Don't You Feel a Mosquito When It Bites You and Why Does It Itch Afterwards? [print this page] It has been estimated that mosquitoes have been responsible for more human deaths than any other single cause. They are certainly the most dangerous animal on earth by a wide, wide margin.
What makes them dangerous is not only their effectiveness at spreading diseases such as yellow fever and malaria, but also their ability to get into almost any closed space, their amazing reproduction numbers and the fact that people seldom detect them on their skin until it is far too late.
Too Late to Stop Her
By the time most of feel a mosquito bite it has sank its lancets into our flesh, pierced a capillary, forced in some of its own saliva and sucked out a small amount of our blood.
Yuck.
It is only the female mosquito that bites humans and then only when she is ready to lay her eggs. Normally both mosquito sexes live on fruit juices. But for some odd reason, Mother Nature decided that the mosquito should need human blood to make her egg viable.
Amazingly some people can actually feel a mosquito land on their skin or feel her bite. But these sensitives are few and far between. Most of us don't feel a thing.
The Deadly Kiss
Another thing that seems to make us oblivious to the bite is that the saliva that she injects, while primarily an anticoagulant, also has an anesthetic affect on the bitee. This numbs the area long enough for the blood sucking to take place.
It is the saliva left behind and its anticoagulant properties that actually causes the swelling and itching of the bite. Most, but not all, of us have a small allergic reaction to it that causes the small lumps and inching. Unfortunately for many, especially in the tropics, this saliva left behind is also how the viruses that cause illness and death are spread.
The late space station pioneer, Gerard K. O'Neill, when asked if there would be a place for animals in the space stations replied, sure. But we will leave the pests like mosquitoes at home. Sounds good to me.
Why Don't You Feel a Mosquito When It Bites You and Why Does It Itch Afterwards?
