On warm spring evenings in the city or in nature, we are never alone. If we stop in one place, a swarm of hungry female mosquitoes quickly gathers around us.

Usually, mosquitoes feed on plant sap and nectar from flowers, and males do not bite.

The need for blood is related to the production of eggs by the female mosquito - it provides the necessary proteins for the development of the eggs. In some mosquitoes, blood is a necessary food to start the formation of eggs, while in others it only helps to form more eggs.

The oral apparatus of mosquitoes has unusual properties - on the one hand, it manages to pierce the skin, and on the other, it turns out to be so flexible that it can bend at right angles. And not only that - the mosquito itself controls the movements and bending of its proboscis.

Various factors make us more attractive to pesky insects - if our body produces more heat, we are pregnant or we have a rich bacterial microflora on our skin, the probability of attracting more mosquitoes is also greater. They are also attracted by exhaled carbon dioxide. Therefore, it is recommended to use mosquito repellent - it repels them.

Once landed on us, the mosquito quickly finds a suitable place to pierce the skin and dip its proboscis into some small blood vessel. At this point, it secretes a substance that dilates the blood vessel and prevents blood clotting for the purpose of more convenient blood suction, as well as painkillers so that we do not know what is happening.

Why does it itch?

The saliva that the mosquito secretes at the site of the bite has another effect - the immune system recognizes it as an enemy and histamines are released.

Lymphocytes flock to the site, the purpose of which is to fight off the enemy's saliva, and all this manifests itself as an itchy pimple on the skin.

The more we scratch it, the more histamine is released and the more itches. Almost nothing can help the unpleasant consequences to pass faster - except not to touch the place, and if it is unbearable, to put ice.