Vicious mosquitoes attacked my son today.

Sounds like the Alabama Skeeters are expanding their territory. They may be the LA state bird, but these bugs we have can stand flat-footed and rape a turkey.

Those are the kinds of bites one sees around here if someone isn't used to them or slightly allergic. Redhatty had some great advice. Any standing water will become a skeeter breeding ground in the summer. Old tires are a favorite around here, as they tend to lie undisturbed for years.

I have heard eating lots of garlic, onions, and peppers will keep them at bay some, but I have never verified this. I do know it appears that after a person with a strong immune system is bitten several times, the severity of a bite will diminish, like the body gets used to them. Believe it or not, smoking will actually make you less attractive to the little buggers. (Please don't start smoking just to get rid of the skeeter bites. ) They are attracted to both CO2 (from your breath) and sweat, so body chemistry does have something to do with it.

I personally have little trouble with the blood-suckers. I smoke heavily, and I dearly love onions and peppers. Plus, since I have lived here all of my life, when I do get bitten it is typically just a bit of an itch and it goes away. The rest of my family (especially my wife) appears to be a bit more susceptible to their intrusion, however.

Our home remedy has always been a little vinegar. If the bites are especially bothersome, make a compress of tobacco and vinegar. This works for skeeters as well as spiders, bees, wasps, and about every insect bite I can think of.

Mosquitoes can carry disease, since they typically bite several different hosts and there is therefore a bit of blood sharing between bites. It's not the skeeter that infects you; it is the blood the skeeter just drank from someone (something?) else. Since they don't typically travel that far in a generation (as far as I know), it wouldn't be possible for them to spread something that wasn't already in the general vicinity; they just make a disease act like it is airborne.

Apparently you just happened to walk outside in a swarm, probably freshly hatched. I wouldn't worry too much about it, especially since they are going away. If you have been inundated by rain lately, it could be puddles of water under your house that have survived long enough to become breeding grounds. Just put some bleach (or oil works as well, just not as environmentally friendly ) in any areas of standing water, no matter how insignificant they may be.

Oh, and don't forget a couple citronella candles or Tiki torches. They actually do work to a point.

TheRedneck

We've been talking about this very thing, my husband and I.

We don't dare go outside without getting attacked. They seem to like him more than me; at one point, drum roll please, he had 47 bites on his legs. Let me repeat, FOURTY SEVEN.

For the last month or so he hasn't had less than 15 bites at a time. He takes benedryll for it.

I on the other hand, have only had four, but after the first bites I've been careful to not go outside in the morning and evening.

But last year we never had a single bite between us. So what's up with that?

reply to post by Ventessa


Do to relatively mild summer and the government no longer spraying for mosquito's you'll have to take the matter into your own hands. My son was practically eaten alive about 3 weeks ago went to the store the same day sprayed the yard and bought deep woods off happy to report no more mosquito's.Now if only getting rid of flies was that easy.

PS if your worried about mosquito repellent there are natural ones however simply spraying there clothes will cut down on there exposure and it works.

[edit on 8/1/09 by dragonridr]

Originally posted by Jadette
We've been talking about this very thing, my husband and I.

We don't dare go outside without getting attacked. They seem to like him more than me; at one point, drum roll please, he had 47 bites on his legs. Let me repeat, FOURTY SEVEN.

For the last month or so he hasn't had less than 15 bites at a time. He takes benedryll for it.

I on the other hand, have only had four, but after the first bites I've been careful to not go outside in the morning and evening.

But last year we never had a single bite between us. So what's up with that?

Have you had anybody in your locality provide a breeding ground near you which wasn't there a year ago, a pond in the back garden, like has been mentioned a load of tyres or any junk dumped locally and holding rain water for the Mossies to breed in?

A few Mossies stretched over a fairly wide area won't be too much of a problem, a few people may get bitten once or twice on the low populations travels.

When you are being attacked you are near where they are breeding.

Find out the breeding ground and get it dealt with and you'll minimise the problem, they don't live long, stop the reproductive cycle of the swarms and they dissipate back to being less problematical populations per square mile.

If you need to, contact the environment agency or officials where you are which deal with these things, if on private or common land or a neighbour who won't be friendly about clearing things up whatever.

They have to breed somewhere so knock out their breeding ground(s).

Organise petitions on health grounds to compel the local governement officials to take action, especially if there's probelms near schools and lots of kids etc being affected and having to be effectively under house arrest because of the high Mossie populations and swarming, let us not forget the elderly etc if they are suffering being housebound because of Mossie swarms.

It's not something councils/local government can just ignore so apply liberal amounts of pressure.

Also, this may sound a bit dramatic, i don't mean it to be, but as above poster has said "governemnt stopped spraying", robust guys and gals etc who aren't getting bitten can posse up and go around an area cleaning up potential breeding grounds, compelling land owners/leasers/renters whatever, on behalf of the community at large, go and band together and let your local police/sheriff know about your activities so they know why you are looking for the cause of swarms over peoples fences and industrial estates etc wherever, don't want to be arrested and i'm sure local enforcement will understand the local community wanting to take direct and affirmative action against what is a health risk and nasty experience for anybody especially the young and old and will likely support your efforts even.

Paxus.


[edit on 1-8-2009 by DeltaPan]

Ouch! poor kid!

When I did my military service in the Scandinavian Arctic, we were invaded by Jumbo size killer mosquitos during the short summer months up north.

Man they were terrible, I almost looked like your kid!

I used Military grade DEET (N, N diethyl-m-toluamide) and it's quite good against the bastards, but I suspect it's also quite toxic and therefore maybe not the best choice for children?

Try to see if you can find a new mosquito repellent called IXNIX some friends of mine tested it in the Swedish Military and said it was even much better than DEET - and less toxic as well!

But I don't know if you could buy this yet in the USA?

I read that the American producers of DEET were trying to block the sales of IXNIX for competing reasons. (it was a threat against their sale of DEET)

I noticed mosquitos are out at all times during the day and night and I thought they were only out at dusk and dawn. And when one bites there are always several others that join, assuming the American Mosquito isnt plagued with obesity like Americans....and never wear anything yellow outside because when I do all sorts of miniscule critters flock to me and try to nest, even robins.


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I agree that the mosquito's are worse this year then ever. And your son has some pretty bad bites on him. I haven't seen any bites that big. The deer ticks are awful this year too. I put 'OFF' on my son before taking him outside & guess what happened. found some ticks on him anyway!! The mosquito's even attack the kids when they are swimming in the pool. It's a horrible price to pay when you just want to go out and enjoy nature and go for nature walks. Good luck with those welts. I hope the swelling is down somewhat tomorrow!

Wow! Poor kid! He is really allergic to those nasty little flying syringes! I hope he can sleep tonight.

It finally rained at my house and the mosquitoes are horrible. I found some super strong, natural, garlic spray online that I want to try when my next pay day comes. I have horses, dogs, cats, a goat, and a pond, so I don't want to use toxic insecticides. Mosquito Barrier It sounds good. I wonder how much it would cost to rent a crop duster?

Thats crazy, I have been tore up by yellow flies and not looked that bad. He has to be allergic to them.

The hands down best thing to keep them away from a certain area is Thermocell. They sell them in Wallgreens. We use them for hunting because they chase off the skeeters plus they are odorless.

We sit in deep dark swamps in T-shirts with these things strapped to our tree stands.

I would have to take my child to an allergy specialist and have him see if it can trigger anafalactic shock, If so then you had better learn how to protect him and have an Epi-pen on you at all times.

Preventive allergy shots do work, I speak from experience just so you know.

Those look like maybe your son is allergic to those critters. Assuming they are mosquitoes, he might have somehow gotten more sensitive to them. Boy, those must have smarted and itched!

Get some lavender lotion and run it all over the place. Those critters hate lavender. You can also plant lavender bushes in the yard to help deter them.

Hope that helps. Last year I had em all over, this year none at all. Been using a high potent lavender lotion I buy at trader joes.

Ama

Poor kiddo! I have the same type of reaction when I get mosquito bites. I grew up in PA and only got normal little bumps from mosquito bites. When I moved south, I was introduced to the tiger mosquito. Those evil little things cause that type of welts. My friends and family from up north have the same type of reaction, while the native southerners don't have that problem. I guess it's because they've been exposed to tiger mosquitoes their whole lives. I wonder if some new type of mosquito moved into your area?

those welts mean he is allergic.

If they are coming out during the day then they are tiger mosquitos. And they are vicious. They are an asian invasive species.

You need to combe your yard for any little bit of water. Mosquitos only need a tablespoon of water to breed. I have found larvae in little pockets in a tarp. Check everything!

I also suggest putting in a bat house.

We had a super rainy year a couple of years ago and the mosquitos and flies were everywhere, even in the house! I was going crazy with sticky tape and fly sprays, mosquito repellant until it just got too much of everything, it was like the bugs thrived on the sprays and for every one fly that got caught by the tape thirty would fly by it.

Fed up I got on the phone with a product specialist at the Greenlight Company, they manufacture organic yard sprays and are on most supermarket shelves. They recommended one of their liquid insecticides made from natural oils that smothers the pests. He went into great detail on WHEN it should be sprayed to avoid killing the beneficial insects. Spraying in the early morning before the sun is fully up was best when all the flies and mosquitos are sleeping in the grass. You just attach the bottle to your hose and start spraying the grass and bushes.

At first nothing happens, but wait a couple of hours and you will see a black cloud of flies and mosquitos hovering a foot or two over your lawn. That is the flies and mosquitos going crazy before they die. About three hours on the cloud is gone. No more flies in the house, no more clouds of mosquitos attacking you, no more fleas or ticks in the yard. It takes about 3 weeks for the mosquitos and flies to return and then you spray again.

Here's a link to their webpage, go to products, go to liquid insecticides, scroll down to "Lawn & Garden Spray Hose-end Concentrate" and that's the one you should look for. If your local store doesn't carry it call Greenlight and they'll get you some. It costs about 9.95 last time I bought it.

www.greenlightco.com...

Good luck,

STM

[edit on 8/2/2009 by seentoomuch]

So you know how I posted and was like "Wow yeah I don't get eaten by those guys anymore"?

Somehow I've managed to get about 15 bites in the past day or so.

Awesome.

Originally posted by ravenshadow13
So you know how I posted and was like "Wow yeah I don't get eaten by those guys anymore"?

Somehow I've managed to get about 15 bites in the past day or so.

Awesome.

It's the law of attraction at work. You started thinking about it as a result of this thread and drew it to you. Last night I had one buzz around my ear for the first time this summer but I just said "no way!" and had no more problems.

I heard a theory once, just a theory, that mosquitos choose people who have higher potassium, because potassium very rarely occurs in nature, so that is how they get it.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
I heard a theory once, just a theory, that mosquitos choose people who have higher potassium, because potassium very rarely occurs in nature, so that is how they get it.

Don't think that dog hunts actually.

Potassium is everywhere, it is abundant, plants and mammals all use it, it's the K in N : P : K fertiliser and is in compost and rotting vegetation to Bananas and most higher lifeforms on our planet use it.

Potash is Potassium.

You did say just a theory though.




[Mind you so is sugar, everywhere, but the link between Mosquito's and blood sugar is long established and i don't think insects can smell Potassium like they smell blood and sugar etc.]

[edit on 2-8-2009 by DeltaPan]

I was shocked that is a horry story, looks like your son was in a war of his own. I have had this same problem from the west coast of Scotland to south Africa, just the bites not the welts.

After much toying with these wee bests, smoking a peat pipe is out for your son, drinking gallons of whiskey is not an idea I would offer. I can however offer you which works for me: Don't use sun creams/blocks I have found that attracts them, use olive oil loads of it no smell and works a treat. If you have a continued problem try rubbing in some cheap old whiskey they hate it. The only other idea I can offer would be mouthwash 'Listerine' they hate the stuff! I spray it around entry points windows, doors I also leave small bowls with just a lil in them around the main gates. Last year on an African farm we were swarmed thousands of the blighters. After a good lashing of Listerine they all buggered off for around three days.

The only other thing I do when 'attacked' by bees, wasp, horse flies and the like is to remain as calm as possible, when the blighters are within range >3 meters I take my trusty lighter and a long can of deo or body spray. Light that swam up good and proper roasting them all to a crisp, needless to say that deals with most of them.

Hope that helps.

that must be very painful