Did You Know Its Female Mosquitoes That Bite?
As the weather warms up and the nights get clammy, this is when an unseen visitor enters your house and takes your property (And I’m not taking about a big burly man with a striped pullover, a mask and a bag with Swag written across it!). This invader is small, doesn’t disturb you when you’re sleeping and like a cat burglar you only know they’ve been until the next morning. What is it you ask? The mosquito…
These insects only make themselves known when you innocently scratch an itchy part of your body and the bump is not only big but also annoys the hell out of you for the rest of the day.
Within Britain there are about 30 different species of mosquito. The Anopheles species (which can also be found on other continents) is a vector for the virus that causes Malaria. Although there has been no recent reported cases of Malaria in this country with climate change occurring it could be back very soon. The last outbreak of this worldwide disease was in 1916-17 in Cliffe in Kent, the last reported man dying of it was as recent as 1952 on the Isle of Sheppey within the same county of Kent.
Your average common household mosquito which bites you tends to be female (no comment!!) with the males feeding on nectar and other sweet substances. To distinguish the sexes you need to look at their antennae with the males having bushy ones and the females being less elaborate. Females find their victim by the use of infra red body heat and also by your exhalation of carbon dioxide from your breath.
How do you protect yourself from these blighters I hear you ask?
Nets could be used as a barrier against these insects. The problem would be it would take half a hour to find your way in and your bed would look like a fairy princesses bed not the image you want to convey if you’re a big roughtie-toughtie type; also one little rip or gap in the net and bham they’re in.
When I worked in a health food shop there were numerous things that could be used such as various types of essential oils such as Lemongrass, Tea-tree oil. The most famous being the lemon-esque smell citronella which is found in candles and insect repellant. Another one was to take a B vitamin supplement or garlic capsules this was supposed to produce a smell from your skin which masked the odour of the body so they couldn’t find you.
I do not know if any of these work but with the hot weather at present these pests (as well as loads of others) are here to stay! With global warming they are not only here to stay but are going to actively seek you out as their next source of their food.
Brigitta:
This is terrible news! I have just come back from Spain – the same villa i have stayed in many times before and for the first time i had problems with mosquitoes and their itchy bites! I could hear them in the middle of the night – that buzzing sound they make as they are about to dive bomb you is really horrible and very distinctive. I ended up with the covers over my bed (not caring about the heat in the middle of the night) and they still managed to bite my finger which was holding the cover over my head – they are unforgiving and relentless so i really hope they do not come to these shores! also, are they more attracted to females than males? i got a lot more bites than my partner who was in the same room as me!And frankly i did not care to find out from looking at the antennae if they are male or female…our first thought was to zap them with a traditional fly swatter (only weapon in the villa). It works too! much easier to swat a mosquito than a fly with one of these as they are much slower than flies – just a little advice!
July 8, 2009, 10:06 amJarek:
Luckily, malaria is still a tropical disease and even with more mosquitoes coming to the UK the risks of outbreak of malaria is lower than very low, so their bites may be itchy but not really dangerous.
)))
July 9, 2009, 9:30 amVitamin B always worked for me – just remember to start taking it in advance (at least 10 days before you go on holidays) – there are some other methods you can use, but as kids may be reading this post I will keep the details…
Surprisingly enough, malaria risks are limited with the altitude (something to do with temperature and air pressure, I’m not a doctor or a biologist, sorry). In some countries it is above 1500m above the sea level in other it is a bit higher.
So if you want to be sure there are no risks, just switch from tropical sunbathing to skiing in Alps and you will be fine. Never spotted a single mosquito there and you can still get sunburned all right