Mosquitoes and Mosquito Mysteries

Um, Elf, they’re females.

I think I’ve got the mystery solved. The mosquitoes hitch a free ride into your apartment by attaching to your body, your hair, your bag, or anything you bring into your home with you like a baby stroller. Solution? Do some jumping jacks right before you open your front door and enter quickly.[/quote]

There must be some kind of trap that can be bought and put into bath drains. I know roaches swim and come up those things, mosquitoes wouldn’t surprise me.

The netrance musty be raided with insecticide in order to avoid having those suckers latch onto you and ride into your own home. :fume:

[quote=“Icon”][quote=“Incubus”][quote]
There must be some kind of trap that can be bought and put into bath drains. I know roaches swim and come up those things, mosquitoes wouldn’t surprise me.
[/quote][/quote][/quote]

I bought an electronic mosquito repelorizor at Costco. For 500NT it works out the same as a couple of cans of insect spray and it works a treat. Thanks for the post about sleeping with the fan on is a good idea as well.

Absolutely true - this is why those black and white stripey bitches are so tricky, you can barely hear them.

As to the itch, it’s true that they would be more effective and live longer if their bites were not so itchy because we wouldn’t be hunting them down. Maybe it’s a case of us having developed an effective response? At the same time, maybe it’s a case of once the bitch has fed then they can leave with their bellies full of blood. THEN the itch starts, and we are more vigilant about the ones yet to feed, and destroy those ones and as a result increase the chances of the initial biter breeding.

Also, these things have been around probably 100 million or so years, feeding on animals which are ineffective at killing them. It’s only been recently that humans have been around, so it stands to reason that it’s only recently that they would have had to evolve stealth flight and non-itchy bites - I have no doubt that they will evolve as necessary to ensure their survival.

Blood sucking parasites?

Does anybody know any cream that works well with these Taiwanese mosquito bites? My body seems to grow these massive bumps and it takes weeks to heal. Sometimes it leaves brown marks on my skin as sort of a reminder that I was just eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Good ole fashioned Hydro-Cortisone :thumbsup:

This is not a joke. OK, maybe it was a slow day at work. Maybe I had too much time for pondering. But it’s true. Taiwanese mosquitoes do not like me. Admittedly, it’s a suffering beyond the pale.

The other day the ex and I took the dog over to Dajia Riverside Park — which, by the way to hijack my sentiments expressed in the Taipe Flora Expo thread, fuck the flowers and fuck the government for tearing up what few parks we have in the city, and erecting these monolithic structures for a truly inexcusable “purpose” — at sundown, right when mosquitoes start to get active. We hadn’t been there 10 mins. and the ex had gotten tagged half a dozen times or more. Me? Nada. An hour and half later, her legs looked like Courtney Love’s after a particularly scabrous detox or crack binge, take your pick. At one point we were standing under a streetlight and I could see dozens of skeeters in silhouette, swarming around her. If I stuck my arm into the swarm, they dispersed.

I had plenty of time to read up on mosquitoes and their dining habits and it’s widely suggested that for whatever reason, my body either gives off masking chemicals or unpleasant (to the mosquitoes) odors. Please stow your snide remarks about body odor in the overhead compartment. Fair enough. Here’s the rub: I’m also off-the-charts viz. the factors that attract mosquitoes. I drink, I smoke, I exercise, I sweat like a slave in August, consume lots of foods containing lactic acids, and generally shun repellents of any kind. Get down-wind from me after a three-day bender and you’ll get vapor-trails of homelessness and death. I’m pumping out criminal levels of cee-oh-dos, you know what I’m saying? Surely, mosquitoes have to be down with that. Am I right? Or maybe that’s flies…

I grew up in the Midwest, so I am very familiar with skeeters, in fact, I used to get poached just like everybody else. Then I moved to a West Coast city where skeeters aren’t a problem. I didn’t see a mosquito outside of my particular urban setting for a dozen years. When I ventured to inland areas for camping excursions, I was indeed bitten, frequently.

Long story short, three years later, I can count on one hand the number of mosquito bites I’ve had in Taiwan. Maybe it’s a different strain of skeeter that isn’t sweet on twice-the-legal-limit B.A.C. laowai blood. Tonight, I’ve been on the balcony for over an hour, shirtless, shoeless and in shorts. Ain’t even seen a skeeter. My neighbor came over the other night and got lit up like a blood bank in Haiti.

So I’m asking, are there other folks in the community — laowai or otherwise — who experience this same phenomenon? If so, I’d be real interested to hear your thoughts, experiences, etc. et al, ad infinitum

P.S. Blood type (apparently Type Os tend to be the most skeeter-friendly) and ethnicity may or may not be a factor. For the record, I’m A+, genetically Euromutt, ancestors from N. Italy / S. Germany.

They don’t touch me either. Sometimes when I wake up early morning to take a pee, I look at the wife and think I’m in bed with a lovely Masai princess, she’s so BLACK with the skeeters gorging themselves. But me, nothing. Maybe it’s the liquor and cigarettes, or maybe they just sense I’m an amoral person.

The booze and the gaspers attract mosquitoes, Dr. J.

What’s your blood type? Ethnicity?

[quote=“super_lucky”]
What’s your blood type? [/quote]
Haven’t the foggiest.

Irish and Scottish descent.

Well, you are super lucky, indeed. The little monsters really love me which makes me hate them even more. It’s a curse. Itchy as we speak. I heard they like potassium. Try taking supplements to see if your luck will change. :laughing:

Taiwanese mosquitos don’t like my friend’s blood either,seems strange,but it’s true!he is from Switzerland.

[quote=“jimipresley”][

Irish and Scottish descent.[/quote]

Well there you go then! They’d likely even go for Canadians before you.

I reckon I have some low class blood in me too. Blood suckers stay well clear of me! Perhaps its because they absolutely love sucking my son dry. He’s like an instant skeeter diversion. I should rent him out for outdoor group events. He could just stand ten feet away and draw off every single parasite in the vicinity. He’s great to take on picnics! :lick:

When I first got to Taiwan I was miserable with mosquitoes. They would cover me all over and cause me a hundred sleepless nights. I must have adapted with the diet and temperature or something, cause they just stopped after a few months. Its exactly the same with my dad too. He would come up with lumps and huge infectious looking bumps from being bitten. Now he doesn’t notice so much.

On a slightly related note. I once heard that mosquito anticoagulant cannot actually be eradicated and broken down by the body, so it stays within us forever. Is this true? If it is true, does that mean that it would make some sort of useful stroke inhibitor?

Maybe the mosquitoes prefer Chinese food.

[quote=“sulavaca”]
On a slightly related note. I once heard that mosquito coagulant cannot actually be eradicated and broken down by the body, so it stays within us forever. Is this true? If it is true, does that mean that it would make some sort of useful stroke inhibitor?[/quote]

probably not true.

also, in many people the immune system often becomes adapted to a regular insult, so you’re probably being bitten but don’t raise a reaction to the bite. I notice the same, and when i go to a new area the things itch a lot until i get used to them.

When I started my anti-cholesterol medication, the mosquitoes quit biting me.

I heard they need iron so if you are a bit anemic they might not be too interested, they also like higher temperature, which is unfortunately why they like me too much (the human heater…).

There’s also different types of mosquitoes, the tiger mosquitoes give me really itchy welts after bites…they seem to hang out in bamboo and warm damp places.

There’s a blackfly thing that’s brutal too, seems to be spreading around Asia, got bitten to hell in Malaysia a couple of years ago and I heard Taiwan has it in spots now. They are annoying because they like they actually like sunlight.

[quote=“headhonchoII”]

There’s a blackfly thing that’s brutal too, seems to be spreading around Asia, got bitten to hell in Malaysia a couple of years ago and I heard Taiwan has it in spots now. They are annoying because they like they actually like sunlight.[/quote]

Horseflies. Nasty creatures. The ones I’ve seen here are pretty big. I’ve seen them in the mountains around Sandimen and Maolin on a few occasions. They like the heat and the sunlight, indeed. These flies don’t actually bite. They numb you, they burn your skin with chemicals and they eat you alive through a straw-like mouth. I’m allergic to them so I really dislike them. I swell up like a balloon starting around the affected area followed with my hands and feet. Nasty. I have not been bitten by one in Taiwan yet, but I was under attack few times. :laughing: