Memories of the 28th Century

It is written that there are about 3500 species of mosquitos, but not all of them bite humans, and about 170 species in North America. The spreading of disease is mostly done by two species: Aedes aegypti and the Aedes albopictus, the latter of which is commonly known as the Asian tiger mosquito because of its black and white stripes.” (From Fox News article, link below) That article also explains why the bites itch. If you want more methods for stopping the itching, then the wikihow article might help. The Mayo Clinic article explains the itching in more detail. “As a biting mosquito fills itself with blood, it injects saliva into your skin. Proteins in the saliva trigger a mild immune system reaction that results in the characteristic itching and bump.”
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-c...n/con-20032350
This information suggested to me a possible cure for the itching, and I have used the method with some success for the last several months. The Mayo Clinic article mentions that saliva is injected into the skin, and it appeared to me that the pale spot probably was filled with saliva, so I took to carefully scratching that little patch of skin off, so the saliva would not be held there. When I manage to remove that bit of skin and nothing else, the bite usually stops itching almost immediately. When I scratch up the area, the bite usually continues to be itchy for some time. The results depend on my skin in that area and the sharpness of my fingernails. When the skin and especially the epidermis is thick enough, a single scratch with a sharp fingernail almost always neatly slices off that little patch under which the mosquito saliva is. But when my skin is thin or otherwise unsuitable, my success is not as good.

This is a one shot method. If you fail to skin a bite the first time, then it will be almost impossible to get it in a second try. Some people probably would find scraping the skin off to be as irritating as a mosquito bite, but getting rid of the mosquito saliva does eliminate the source of the irritation. Some mosquitos seem to inject the saliva deeper than others, and deeply injected saliva can’t usually be reached by a scratch, and using a razor or a knife to scrape away the saliva doesn’t usually work well; it leaves a deeper gash the may become inflamed.

I tend not to get any swelling around mosquito bites, so I don’t know how this would affect such swelling, but it should reduce the swelling. If someone who gets swelling of mosquito bites tries this method, then please let me know how it works. It should make the swelling go down sooner, but it wouldn’t be immediate.

The other question about mosquitos is why some make noise but others don’t. I have not been able to find anything definite about this, but I suspect it is because they all make noise, but sometimes the noise is so high pitched that it is not heard by some people. But mosquitos can control the pitch of their wings, and the wings beat at 300 to 600 per second (per the About.com article). The whine is used to attract mates, so they might turn it off, when there are no males around, but I haven’t been able to find anything that would confirm or deny that. There is a specialized part of the wing that changes the pitch, but it seems that the sound is between 300 and 400 hertz. I have always thought that some mosquitos made noise, while others did not, and I believe that is the case. “Mosquitoes are the silent predator” http://mosquito-control-blog.com/201...st-mosquitoes/.

Some sources do say that female mosquitos are silent, while others say that they make sounds. So my thought that females sometimes make noise and are silent at other times probably is true. If you can’t hear them, then it isn’t necessarily because your hearing is deteriorating. I suspect that the females make noise when they are trying to attract a male at the same time as they are looking for blood, but apparently they don't necessarily do both at the same time. And there is the matter of after they iitially set down; at that tie they will stop making noise, even though they may move around to find a choice spot.

Mosquitos are not my favorite animal, but most in this area do not carry disease; although some may. There may be a good reason for mosquitos to exist, but I don’t know why that is. As long as I don’t contract some disease from a bit, I will try to shrug off the effects of those that get through my attempts to protect myself.

There is a lot more to be known about those nasty little things, but pouring kerosene on still water to stop their life cycle isn't popular any more, because it would pollute the water, even though it is a well proven way to get rid of them in great numbers.

Just to remind myself of how effective mosquito eradication was done, I looked up what was done while the Panama Canal was be built. It is worth the read. Not only does it it tell how it was done, but it gives some ideas of how we could stop things like that now. http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/his...ama_canal.html

Other sources
http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Mosquito-Bites-from-Itching
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/0...squito-bites/?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito
http://www.mosquitoreviews.com/mosqu...buzz-ears.html