Mary’s Monday Metazoan: Too close to home


Oh, no—Mary found Ed Yong’s post about mosquito bites.

Anopheles_gambiae

We live in Minnesota. We try to forget these things.

Comments

  1. F [is for failure to emerge] says

    Damn. Saw that post, had failed to read it.

    Strangely, I don’t get mosquitoes like I used to. I actually enjoy this little thing when it is brought to mind. Hate them.

  2. eigenperson says

    Too bad “immunizing” against their saliva didn’t stop them. Because that would be amazing.

  3. anuran says

    A female is nonconsensually taking someone’s bodily fluids in order to reproduce.
    PZ, this sort of explicit interspecies rape picture needs to come with a trigger warning

  4. machintelligence says

    A cousin who lives in Minnesota insists that the mosquito is the state bird and that mosquitoes in his part of the state think of DEET as a condiment

  5. thebookofdave says

    Damn right, @machintelligence! You neglect to salute those suckers at your peril. Clobbering one with a brick will only make it more ornery, and won’t slow down the rest of the swarm. You can let them carry off a pet or child in your place, though the sacrifice will buy you little time. Best bet is to avoid provocation altogether (try not to exhale in their presence).

  6. b. - Order of Lagomorpha says

    Sitting here, scratching five mosquito bites (one on my cheek bone!), I’m finding it hard to resist the temptation to slap the crap out of that picture. Bees won’t sting me, but mosquitos love me.

  7. David Marjanović says

    Our Mosquitoes Are Different ought to be a TV Trope…

    anuran, you are not being funny.

  8. says

    Four minutes? How can that be? I swear I can feel it biting me before it has even started. And then it is one dead skeeter. Maybe this is why I have no bites. They must know I have secret powers.

  9. anuran says

    David, and you’re being a twit. That joke originally came from a group of female (and feminist) entomologists.

  10. nightshadequeen says

    anuran, you are not being funny.

    Oh good. I’m not the only one who found that joke to be….less than kosher.

  11. Sili says

    I recall reading somewhere that in reality Earth is a habitat set up by aliens to protect the endangered species the mosquito. We’re just here for food.