Its sort of ironic how mosquitoes are at the very bottom of the food chain for most of the ecologies they inhabit... But at the same time, is the biggest killer (through the transmission of malaria and other diseases) of humans, who see themselves at the top of the food chain.
In reality, the food chain is more like a food cycle.
...humans, who see themselves...
y-you mean ourselves, right?
Their username makes this joke even funnier.
i didnt realise ...
Off course, fellow human!
Wait, you guys are still meatbags?
Unfortunately, we probably can't. A LOT of things eat mosquitos.
I'll settle for a repellent that works or better yet something that makes me no longer react to bites.
There is some promising research with gene drives, which are essentially genes that when passed on to offspring, overwrite the other copy of the gene from the other parent.
It may be possible to introduce non disease spreading mosquitoes with gene drives into the wild and within an extremely short time all mosquitoes in the population would be non disease carrying.
Of course, this is something that you may not be able to reverse once done, so it's a pretty drastic step to take after very intense scrutiny.
I'd be more than fine with this, I just don't want us to hate mosquitoes into a four pests scenario.
True, the issue of being bitten would not go away. Perhaps a gene that makes them not attracted to biting humans somehow, but that would be a lot harder to implement
i would imagine there is a way to make mosquitoes just not want to bite humans or remove the reaction somehow in the future.
Hear me out. Mosquito laser fence. I think we have a few years before the patent expires.
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/08/laser-zap-that-mosquito/
I was thinking this too, apparently not a new idea.
If they didn't itch I wouldn't really care that they eat me, aside from passing on diseases. Or when one gets into the bedroom and keeps waking you up by buzzing in your ear randomly....
I wonder what face would ticks pull in this case where we already know there is no drawback for 100% annihilating them.
tick dont have anything on the horror of bedbugs.
Those little monsters would just try harder.
OP, take your nail, the sharpest you have.
Now press it firmly into the sting, then rotate by 90° and repeat.
Dunno if it's placebo but makes some itching go away for me.
We have a suction tool, I think it's literally called the bug bite thing or something. Basically it suctions on to your arm where the bite was and you pull your skin up into this tube and it sucks out the venom that causes the itching as well as the stinger if one was left behind.
My wife and I haven't had a bug bite any time we've had that thing handy, so mainly we just put it on each other's nipples for shits & gigs. I can't really say that it's effective, but it is fun.
Not sure if that would work with mosquito puke though.
P.D: does it feel good?
On male nips yeah it's aight. I think hers are a lot more sensitive though, she said it hurt.
I think it's actually specifically marketed for mosquito bites if I'm not mistaken
This is why I love the Internet
Your comment made my day 😂
To be clear - @happyhippo@feddit.it means your FINGERnail. Don't stab yourself.
Lol indeed. Thanks for making it clear.
You're still among us, OP, are you?
This is the first time in this thread I'm putting it together they were talking about fingernails. It was a wild ride for a second there.
I usually heat a spoon with a lighter and then burn the itch away.
This, but I use the hottest water I can stand under the tap and go a few times.
The way this works is because the reason a mosquito bite is itchy is due to an enzyme in mosquito saliva which locally numbs an area when a mosquito bites you. Once the mosquito saliva enzyme starts wearing off, it registers as itchiness until the enzyme is completely gone. So, using heat to denature the enzyme, making it impossible to do it’s job, makes the itching go away.
I thought the itchiness was due to your immune system reacting to the saliva. And as you scratch it, you cause additional inflammation which causes a bigger response and thus more itchiness.
Whatever it is, killing it with fire works. Though I got a bit carried away a few nights ago and I have a burn mark on my leg now. Be careful kids!
Wait so the if you scratch it, it itches more that my parents used to tell me was a real thing?
I think its unethical to cause an animal to go extinct on purpose. Like it seems a very nuclear option to me.
On the other hand I hate these mosquitoes tho.. And they are a medical threat to humans
Is it unethical to make smallpox go extinct?
I guess we humans have a different code of ethics for diseases and bacteria... Team DNA mixing vs team DNA cloning... A fight as old as life itself
Team preoccupied with whether or not they can vs team thinking if they should
I think its unethical to cause an animal to go extinct on purpose.
Counterpoint: guinea worm, a nightmarish human parasite with possible mentions back to ancient Egypt. As of the mid 1980's, it infected millions every year. Now it is on the verge of extinction due to a very concerted international effort. All those little worms were doing was causing intense physical suffering for humans and other animals.
This is one gamble I am willing to make.
As much as I hate mosquitoes, I must admit that without them, entire ecological systems would collapse...
I'll go with mosquitoes after and just after getting done of all the fucking cockroaches
Same, I fucking despise and fear cockroaches, so much, I hate them, I cannot live in a place with even a few cockroaches, I pray every day they die out
I really need to watch that new Puss in Boots. Watched Shrek 2 months ago and found it okay - it only made me more hyped for PIB.
I think there's a little stick of some kind of medicine or another you can buy to rub on a bite as well as not touch it, scratching makes it a lot worse. Other than that, try not to have a lot of sweat on you and don't stay still for a long time outside.
Pressing the back of a hot spoon firmly does wonders to stop the itch. Like tap water hot... not crack rock hot.
I use a hair dryer to blow on the bites until they don't itch anymore (can feel a bit painful when doing it), but it stops the itching for about 4 to 5 hours.
The reason for this is that the protein that causes the itching denatures at a lower temperature than skin burns.
So if you take anything hot, but not too hot, and hold it against the sting it will help with the itching. You get better results the sooner you do it after the bite though.