To wonder what is the actual purpose of a mosquito?

[Orangeanddemons]

I have 19 bites . why do they even exist?

[Goshthatsspicy]

19? Poor you. Where did you get them?

[Salmotrutta]

Well they are a food source for other creatures - part of the food chain.

[Orangeanddemons]

What other creatures? This is what I'm trying to work out. What is the purpose of them, and could the other creatures live without them?

As it seems their only purpose is to use me as some sort of snackshack.

I'm in France

[Holowiwi]

I hate them as well, when I hear them at night I can't sleep until i find it and kill it. And why do they always fly next to your ear???

But they play a part in the circle of life.

[sonjadog]

I feel the same about ticks. Why do ticks exist? Would anyone really miss them if they were gone?

[Iagreewithmrsdevere]

After I recovered from malaria a few years ago I was wondering the same thing and I remember seeing somewhere that they are the only insect that can fertilise the cocoa plant, so no mosquitoes = no chocolate. I don't know if that is true though

[GerundTheBehemoth]

Their purpose is to be mosquitoes and to get it on with other mosquitoes in order to make more mosquitoes. And now the word 'mosquitoes' has gone weird on me. Sorry about your bites - I am a magnet for them too.

[abigamarone]

My mosquito bites all turned into huge godawful pustules last time. My reaction gets more spectacular the older I get.

[Bumbledumb]

They exist because they are successfully adapted to survive in the environment that they inhabit. It's the same reason you, I and every other creature on the planet exists. Life on this planet does not exist for a purpose.

[Orangeanddemons]

I wish someone would enlighten me as to their purpose. Bastards

[Moln]

They feed quite a lot of animals, fish, bats, birds and spiders. I think because they have no positive just a devastating effect on humans we see them as pointless but for sustaining the ecosystem they are pretty much essential.

[villainousbroodmare]

Quite a lot of obnoxious insects have made areas of the planet uncolonisable and unfarmable, creating safe havens for wildlife. There'd hardly be an elephant or rhino in the world, for example, were it not for the tsetse fly.
Sorry for your misery. at "snackshack" though!

[YeOldeTrout]

Male Mosquitos are important pollinators in some places, it's the females who bite you (need protein to make eggs). Mozzies also serve as hosts for other species.

Personally I couldn't be vegan, because I'd quit happily drive malaria extinct.

[GerundTheBehemoth]

It is midges rather than mozzies that pollinate the cacao flowers (albeit bitey species of midges).

[YeOldeTrout]

hmm... maybe we could do without Mozzies.

[Minion]

Pfft.
I see your 19 bites and raise you 24.
On one leg.
Completed in 8 hours.
Stealthy ninja bastards!

Couldnt pay me enough to go to the arsehole of the carribbean again.

[Moln]

I get an allergic reaction to them and come out in hives, because the bites just aren't enough!!

If Nature says their extinction wouldn't have a detrimental effect lets start working on it!!!

[Notnowbernard]

I feel your pain

I react hideously - it's an allergy to the saliva rather than the bite itself, I've read

I've taken pics to show GP as I'm going to demand something prior to my next trip... There must be something prescription only that will deter the bastards

Have you done the boiling water trick?

[corgiology]

Well, what is the purpose of a human?


All we seem to do is wreck the planet for other species because of our greed.

[YeOldeTrout]

I have mild allergic reactions to every micro beast except mozzies. Woodlice, earwigs, fleas, midges, thrips, spiders, weird little bugs. Just not mozzies. Weird.

[BertieBotts]

God, I hate them. There was one in our room the other night (am in Germany - always surprises me how far you don't have to go to find them...) and I stood there with a rolled up newspaper for a full HOUR trying to find the bastard, but was too nice to whack DH in the face when it landed on him.

I can't stop myself from scratching them so they come up huge and scabby. And now I have bruises around the scabs from pinching them to try and not scratch them

[BertieBotts]

And annoyingly this was the night that DS and I went out to see the meteor shower. I made a big deal about wearing long sleeves and trousers so we wouldn't get bitten and then I come home to one sitting in wait in my bed! Argh!

[Orangeanddemons]

What's the boiling water trick? I react to them badly too.

Have just discovered 3 more...

[Notnowbernard]

My top tip (it really works!!! And I am tru-sufferer)

Dip cotton wool/tissue into just boiled water. Hold onto the bite as long as you can stand it... Repeat

The heat denatures the stuff in the saliva that then reduces the itching

It's a remedy that's beaten any OTC anti histamine...

Now I just need to find something that STOPS me getting bitten!!

[Notnowbernard]

I only wear trousers at night now. It's definitely reduced the number of bites