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With the fun of summer comes millions of annoying insects including mosquitoes. Mosquitoes not only bite and leave itching welts but they sometimes transmit serious diseases to their victims. Some diseases transmitted to people by mosquitoes are West Nile virus, malaria, and dengue fever. Your pets can get life-threatening heartworms from these nasty pests, as well. Here in the United States our risk of contracting diseases from mosquito bites are low. We can use insect repellents to help discourage their nasty bites and protect our pets with monthly heartworm preventative. We have screens on our windows to deter pests from entering. However, most of us can turn on the air-conditioning to avoid even opening the windows.
There are more mosquitoes flying about at dusk and dawn so protect your children with repellants if they are out at these times. Those nasty, itchy bumps can last up to 10 days after a sting. Some people even have severe allergic reactions to mosquito bites and require immediate medical intervention. They can cause swelling in the throat, hives, and wheezing. If a child is new to your family offer close supervision during play until you ascertain whether your child is allergic to stings from various insects. Obviously, you wouldn’t allow an infant or toddler to play alone, but many older children enjoy exploring their new environment alone. Usually, a child coming from a foster home would already be diagnosed, but not always. Children coming from an orphanage in another country may have little medical information, if any provided. Symptoms of something more serious than an itchy bump such as West Nile may include fever, severe headache, body aches, nausea, vomiting, swollen glands, rash, lethargy, confusion, light sensitivity, and Jaundice.
The female mosquito is the one that bites people. She consumes your blood by piercing through your skin with her mouth that is called a proboscis. You can get sick because while she is sucking your blood she leaves some of her saliva in you. The itching and bump are the result of your body’s immune system reacting to the proteins in the saliva. People with type O blood, or overweight may be more alluring to mosquitoes who choose their victims by scent, sweat, and exhaled carbon dioxide. Dark colors absorb more heat than light colors and mosquitoes like heat.
Mosquitoes need stagnant water to breed so don’t leave empty bowls, buckets, or flowerpots sitting around gathering rain water. Empty the children’s wading pool, birdbaths at least once a week. Unclog the roof gutters so they are not holding water. Don’t leave old tires lying around and cover or drain your fire pit. Place yellow bug lights in outside fixtures. These efforts can help reduce the mosquito population around you.
Photo Credit:Wili Hybrid’s Photo stream 07/22/2006.Attribution license creative commons .
Photo Credit:lolo tahiti’s Photo stream 05/10/2006 .Attribution license creative commons .
weird thing that works to relieve itching of bites is a stick of any deoderant.