It’s not the bite that causes the itch – it’s actually the body’s response to the foreign mosquito protein it is trying to fight. “Mosquitoes’ saliva has lots of proteins in it some are allergens,” Vosshall said, adding, “Our body recognizes the mosquito protein as foreign, and our immune cells spring into action to try to fight it.” It also has anticoagulants so your blood continues to flow without clotting. Leslie Vosshall, vice president and chief scientific officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, explained that a mosquito’s saliva has a quality similar to an anesthetic, so you don’t feel the bite until after the insect flies away. As the mosquito is feeding on your blood, it injects saliva into your skin, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When a mosquito bites you, it pierces the skin using a special mouthpart (proboscis) to suck up blood. How do mosquitoes choose their prey and how can we repel them? We spoke to some experts for their advice. Some people seem to be mosquito magnets – the insects flock to them wherever they are, leaving bites in any exposed flesh – while others are left relatively unscathed and itch free. The more you scratch, the more they itch – starting a vicious cycle that can leave you irritated, sore and covered in red bumps. The little red bumps swell up almost immediately, creating an itch that once you start scratching only seems to get worse. If you’ve ever been bitten by a mosquito, you know how frustrating their bites can be.
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