Prevent Mosquito Bites!

Mosquitoes don’t really bite you… they don’t have teeth. What they have is a proboscis that they insert into your skin like a hypodermic needle, through which they withdraw your blood for their nourishment. To prevent your blood from clotting and clogging up their proboscis, mosquitoes first inject a bit of saliva containing an anticoagulant, and that’s what causes the welt on our arm when they fly off.

Mosquito “bites” are not only uncomfortably itchy, they can be medically dangerous. Mosquitoes can transmit diseases such as chikungunya, dengue fever, malaria, West Nile, and Zika.

The best way to prevent mosquitoes from infecting you or making you itchy is to stop them from getting to you at all. Here are some steps to take to protect yourself.

1. Cover up when outdoors. Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants to cover your arms and legs.
2. Mosquitoes breed by laying their eggs in standing water. This could be anything from a birdbath, swimming pool, or pet water bowl, to toys or buckets that have been caught in the rain, to small puddles in leaves stuck in the gutters. Remove all sources of standing water at least once a week.
3. Mosquitoes can be especially annoying indoors. Be sure all windows and doors have intact screens.
4. Use insect repellent. EPA-registered insect repellents are both safe and effective. They will include one of the following active ingredients:

• catnip oil
• citronella
• DEET
• IR 3535
• pmd (para-Menthane-3,8-diol)
• lemon eucalyptus
• picaridin
• 2-undecanone

Keep yourself safe from mosquito-borne diseases and itchy welts this summer.