I’m tired of mosquitos biting me. If i can’t stop them biting me, the next best thing is to stop them biting me a second time. So what’s the best (safe for me) way to make myself poisonous to mosquitos, and optionally other bugs that might bite me?
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if your skin isn’t bothered, anything with DEET is by far the most effective
The Ologies podcast has a great episode on Mosquitos that might help. The host talks to a mosquito scientist about what works and what doesnt and why. https://www.alieward.com/ologies/culicidology
Of course it is a neurotoxin but if you’re OK with that yeah it works the best
I bet you’re afraid of fluorinated water too. Vaccines have mercury in them!
I’ve had good luck using permethrin as a bug repellant instead of a clothing treatment.
Not a doctor. Really don’t do/consume anything on the basis of what you hear on Lemmy.
But maybe the bacillus thuringiensis toxin? Bacillus thuringiensis is a bacterium that produces a natural pesticide that I’ve heard (again, not a doctor, don’t take anything I say as medical advice) doesn’t affect vertibrates. But mosquitos aren’t vertibrates. So, (again, not an expert and this may be bullshit) maybe that means it’s safe for humans to use.
But what do I mean by “use”? I’m guessing it might (not a doctor) be safe to use on the skin (if it could be obtained in medical-grade quality – but I’m not an expert).
But I kindof doubt (though I could be wrong) that eating bacillus thurengiensis or the actual toxin would work. The toxin is (I believe, just from reading the bacillus thuringiensis Wikipedia page) a protein, and I don’t think (ɹoʇɔop ɐ ʇou ɯɐ I) consumed proteins are likely to get into the bloodstream. (And if they did, I suspect (though I am not a doctor) that would cause you some problems, or at least an immune response and some inflamation or some such.)
Before consuming Bug Powder Dust, read or watch Naked Lunch to know what you are in for
You could look for inspiration at pet flea and tick products
Eat a lot of onion and garlic. Eat fewer fruits like bananas.
Anecdotally I have to disagree, for years I didn’t like or eat bananas, and most of my meal bases start with garlic and onion, but I’m always the first to get attacked by mosquitos.
The trick is finding a pesticide that the LD50 for mosquitoes is less then humans and take an amount constantly to maintain lethal to mosquito blood levels that isn’t lethal to humans.
If you want more details I can’t help because this idea is really dumb.
What does LD50 even mean?
Dose needed to kill half the number of individuals or animals of a species that take it. So if 100 people took this substance, what would be the dose needed to kill 50 of them. Same for mosquitos.
The LD50 is usually expressed as the mass of substance administered per unit mass of test subject, typically as milligrams of substance per kilogram of body mass, sometimes also stated as nanograms (suitable for botulinum), micrograms, or grams (suitable for paracetamol) per kilogram. Stating it this way allows the relative toxicity of different substances to be compared and normalizes for the variation in the size of the animals exposed (although toxicity does not always scale simply with body mass).
The value of LD50 for a substance is the dose required to kill half the members of a tested population after a specified test duration
This is, effectively, how oral flee/tick medications work in animals. It basically turns the animal’s blood into a mild poison. The poison is mild enough that it doesn’t affect the animal but it’s enough to kill small insects like flees, ticks, or mosquitoes.
Vitamin B-12. Take 1500 mg of B-12 daily. It will mask your blood’s scent, when you sweat it out. It will make you smell faintly bitter, and prevents ticks, chiggers, and mosquitoes.
Permethrin clothing. Works fucking amazing. I have a jumpsuit treaded with it, kills ticks, mosquitoes, black flies. Not just repel but kill on contact!
Permethrin is toxic to cats; however, it has little effect on dogs. Many cats die after being given flea treatments intended for dogs, or by contact with dogs having recently been treated with permethrin. In cats it may induce hyperexcitability, tremors, seizures, and death.
fyi
Thanks for the info. I have 3 cats and I was about to look into this.
That said, prethreated clothing should be fine to have around cats as long as they aren’t actively licking/eating them.
My cats are a bit special so I wouldn’t put it past them.
Your link is about a medicine/spray. Where are you finding the clothing?
I’ve treated my hunting clothing with permethrin when we were going to an area that was known to have an extremely heavy tick population. We had a spray bottle of the stuff, and did a thick coating all over our outer gear, and then allowed it to dry. Permethrin is fairly low toxicity for humans & dogs, but absolutely killer for mosquitoes and ticks. Worked like a charm!
Army combat uniforms even come pretreated with it.
Exoficio has a line of repellent clothing with permethrin. Craghoppers used to, but I think they stopped.
The only drawback is washing wears out the treatment, so you either have to buy new gear or treat it yourself, as the other comment states.
safe for me
Well that’s no fun :P
So there are these things… called “bug repellents” which do the trick nicely.
Diet, people with diabetes are more delicious.
- Keto - changes your blood sugar and hormones probably having the biggest impact
- SPICY food, hot peppers, hot chilies, also have a impact
- Garlic - also repels some bugs
Non-diet interventions
- Sit in front of a fan, or strong wind, mosquitoes can’t fly very hard, so they cannot fight a breeze
- Went outside keep moving, don’t stay still
Ever walk into a room, get overwhelmed with the smell of garlic? And there’s no garlic in the room, just people who eat garlic?
I’m suddenly very self-conscious in a way I’ve never felt before
Keep moving. They target CO2 exhalations.
I was on keto for a while and always the main target for mosquitoes among all my friends.
I thought it was more common, but mosquito bites do not effect me, and I only get bit very very occasionally. My kid, on the other hand, gets eaten by mosquitoes and has a very harsh reaction.
What would cause mosquitoes to naturally not want to bite me & no itching/bumps/reaction to their bites?
For the no itching/bumps part, I think the absence of an immune system reaction (or a weak one) will do that
Yeah, that tracks. 🫠
EDIT: Wait… the itching is basically an allergic reaction to mosquito saliva. So, I’m not allergic?
IIRC the itching and inflammation is an immune response to the shit they inject you so you don’t feel the bite as much while they’re drinking, and huge bumps/lots of itching is an allergic reactions of sorts (which is really just the immune system going way overboard with a reaction to something that is not a threat or not a big one). So you may have no reaction to it, or a very light one
See, if you hadn’t wanted it to be safe, you could get all kinds of answers.
There really isn’t anything you can get into your bloodstream that will kill the mosquitoes without causing some degree of issues for a human. The only question is how severe, and whether or not you can get it without a prescription.
Since we already have topical chemicals that keep them away relatively well, ingesting or injecting anything would be silly.
dunno if it affected it or not but i was tripping massive balls on lsd and a mosquito sucked blood from me and seemed to get distorted and not be able to fly right lmfao
Stop fighting them. Use anti histamine cream on the bitea
