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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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?
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).
Pretty sure I just stumbled onto the orgins story for a radioactive super villain.
I do three things and mosquitos avoid me: I eat a ton of garlic, I take a ton of drugs, and I smoke a ton of weed. My blood is semisolid.
After I got long covid mosquitos stopped trying to eat me lol.
So maybe sickness helps idk.
I think sugar makes you more attractive to mosquitoes. I know from first-hand experience that if you’re always hung over, and you smoke cigarettes, then the city mosquitos will leave you alone. The high country mosquitos don’t give a fuck though, they’ll take whatever they can get. Otherwise you want 97% DEET. Don’t bother with any other stuff, it doesn’t work. 97% DEET! Someone’s going to come along and say “nooo, skin so soft mixed with water repels mosquitoes!”. They’re liars. 97% DEET.
DEET works, but is also not exactly healthy and does irritate both skin and mucus membranes. Also, applying DEET over sunscreen reduces the effect of the sunscreen by about 30%. Unless you are in a tropical environment with dangers of Malaria carrying insects, (P)Icaridin is a good alternative:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25936273/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/icaridin
Purely annecdotally, picaridin has worked as well or better than DEET for me. I barely get bitten when I use it, and I usually get bitten up pretty badly when I use DEET (though less than when I don’t use it)
I also find picaridin bug spray to not feel greasy and has less odor than deet, which is nice.
DEET is also fairly toxic to dogs (and cats, but I don’t have one of those) and while it’s not licensed for use on dogs, it doesn’t appear to be toxic to them, which I appreciate as a dog owner (I’m unsure about cats, that info seemed less readily available but I also didn’t put much effort into finding it)
I never had any success with it. It might work in the cities, and populated areas where the mosquitoes have other easy options, but literally the only thing that has ever worked reliably for me in the mountains is 97% DEET. Even the lesser concentration of it, I think it’s 36%, didn’t work. I’ve tried just about everything trying to get away from DEET, and none of it works reliably. If mosquitoes are bothering me in town it’s usually enough to just wear one of those electric repellers that make dragonfly noises, but I only bother with that if I’m out golfing or something, and they’re not particularly bad there. Wherever they’re out in force, I whip out the DEET. Forewarning though, don’t spray it on polyester because it can melt it, and like you said, keep it away from eyes, nose, and lips. We spray it onto our hand and then wipe it onto our face and ears.
DEET is the only chemical that I know-of which they HATE.
I use mosquito-netting to keep them away from me.
I don’t want DEET touching me, at all, ever again.
No, I’m not a mosquito.
: p
Have you tried covering yourself in a uranium based slurry?
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
If i can’t stop them biting me, the next best thing is to stop them biting me a second time.
But you can stop (most of) them!
My strategy is to deploy their natural enemies into my house. That includes a ground level strike team of two cats that will attack and kill anything that crawls and for support from above you want to corners between walls and ceiling covered with as many spiders as possible.
I’ve only been bitten once this year!
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
When you’re out, use DEET and cover yourself. Try to only apply it to your clothes. It’s toxic to humans. Are you out a lot? If so, I’d be worried about ticks and toxic plants as well.
If you have control of the land around you, make sure there’s no stagnant water nearby. If you want to keep a pond, manage your mosquito population using local species if possible. In some places, you can also report stagnant bodies of water.
If they’re inside, check your window screens. If you can’t afford that, use a mosquito net and check my first answers.
Get one of those bug lights with a sticky pad. Complete desolation of the mosquito population in my house. Then just never leave your house.
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.)
I’ve had good luck using permethrin as a bug repellant instead of a clothing treatment.
So one thing to prevent the first is to mask/change your odor. Booze increases bites, sitting and smelling of smoke (including things like wood camp fire smoke,) will mask you; sugary things increase. Soaps and shampoos depend on the product.
Those coils or citronella can drive them off. The noise thingies too.
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.
