This summer and last I started feeling the bite of mosquitoes, like, not the itch, but the moment they “bite”. Like a thin shot or a thin plant spike but more than fiberglass. Is there an evolutionary or environmental change to mosquitoes happening, or am I becoming immune to their numbing agent? What’s happening?

  • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    The numbing agent they apply has a very short duration. So usually in my experience when you’re feeling the bite, it’s not the moment of bite you’re feeling, but the moment that anesthetic wears off. They’ve hung on too long, basically.

    So, it could be a difference in the mosquito population, but it could also be a difference in you, either in how quickly your blood can be sucked up by the mosquito, or how quickly the numbing agent gets processed.

    You can explore this yourself pretty easily if you ever visually spot one before it bites. You can just let it bite, and then count how long it takes before you feel it. It’s not long at all.

      • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        No clue, I don’t know what its mechanism of action is. Probably one of the less-likely possibilities though.