Help! I've Been Bitten By Mosquitoes In The Bay Area

Does it seem strange to cry out for help when a mosquito bites you? It may sound melodramatic, but for some people, a mosquito bite is a serious threat. The inflammation and irritation caused by mosquitoes is an allergic reaction. For some children, and those with a weak immune system, the reaction is greater due to a higher sensitivity to proteins in mosquito saliva. If you develop swollen lymph nodes, fever, hives, or a significant rash, it is cause for concern. You should seek medical attention. You should also closely monitor flu-like symptoms after mosquitoes bite you. Mosquitoes can transmit viruses with symptoms that resemble the flu or the common cold. But, in all other cases, mosquito bites are just irritating. Since mosquito bites are only an annoyance most of the time, our focus today is to help relieve some of the irritation of mosquito bites by sharing tips that will reduce the itch and discomfort. We'll also share with you tips and tricks to get rid of mosquitoes in your yard to prevent mosquitoes from biting you. First, we want to quickly remind you that the best way to rid your yard of mosquitoes is to get year-round pest control that includes coverage for those annoying pests. Jump to our contact page to request pest control in the Bay Area. The service team at Bay Pest is happy to help you with that.

What Do Mosquito Bites Look Like?

Many pests can bite you. Let's start by making sure the bites on your skin are mosquito bites. There are a few ways you can tell. Keep in mind that mosquito bites vary with skin type. You may notice these signs more if you have fair skin.

• Puffy bumps. Mosquito bites don't typically have a hard center. They form a soft blister. The blisters help with easy diagnosis. If you have hard bumps, those bites could be mosquito bites or bites from some other pest.
• Rash. There is typically a rash surrounding mosquito bites. The greater your allergic reaction, the greater the rash will be.
• Dark spots. You might notice dark spots that look like bruises. While not as typical as the other symptoms, they are somewhat common.

Some other common pests that bite are ticks, fleas, gnats, bed bugs, spiders, and ants. It helps to know what these bites look like as well.

• Deer ticks sometimes create a bullseye rash, which is a sign of Lyme disease transmission.
• Fleas leave hard, inflamed bites—typically around the ankles.
• Gnats leave small, red bumps with a minor rash.
• Bed bugs leave numerous bites on the skin that usually look like they follow a path across the body.
• A spider may cause a red bump or a wound with an ulcer at the center.
• Fire ants create irritating, fiery wounds with a small pustule in the center. 

Hopefully, these descriptions will help you determine whether or not you have mosquito bites. The next step is to treat those itchy wounds.

How To Stop Mosquito Bites From Itching?

Mosquito bites itch because the body sends histamines into the area to fight off what it considers an invasion. While histamines are important and helpful for protecting your body from parasites, bacteria, and other harmful organisms, they come with unwanted symptoms, such as itchiness, rash, and inflammation. If you cut your finger, your body will respond similarly. What do you do for a cut? You wash it, disinfect it, and cover it to keep germs out, right? You can do all of this with mosquito bites. Doing so will help reduce irritation and assist your body with the healing process. But, you don't have to put dozens of bandaids all over your body. You can relieve much of your discomfort by washing the bites and applying some, or all, of the following:

• Refrain from scratching. When you scratch mosquito bites, it causes your body to send more histamines into the area around the wound. While you'll have temporary relief, the itch will intensive as those histamines arrive.
• Take an antihistamine, such as Benydril. That medicine isn't just for people who suffer from allergies. It can help with any allergic reaction—including mosquito bites.
• Apply cold to the wounds. Cold reduces inflammation and feels nice on mosquito bites because those bites often feel irritatingly warm.
• Apply heat to the wounds. It may not sound pleasant, but in a recent study, heat was proven to give fast relief for the symptoms related to mosquito bites.  
• Aloe is a natural substance that reduces inflammation and cools the skin. It also has natural restorative properties for your skin.
• Apply Calamine lotion. Calamine lotion provides similar benefits as aloe and is known for relieving itchiness.
• A simple and helpful cure for mosquito bites is rubbing alcohol. It cools the skin and disinfects the wounds. Be careful that you don't use too much because it can make matters worse by drying out your skin, which will increase the itch.
• Heat up some tea, remove the bag and let it sit for a while (or place it in your refrigerator). Once it is cool, apply it to your mosquito bite. The cold will help with the itch, and the tea will reduce the inflammation. Those who use this method swear by green tea as the best type of tea to use.  

Did you know there were so many ways to treat mosquito bites? We have all sorts of fun facts about mosquitoes and mosquito bites. Your Bay Pest service team stays on top of everything you need to know about pests and pest control. On that note, let's turn our attention to mosquito control. We have some great tips that will help you get rid of mosquitoes in your yard.       

How to Keep Mosquitoes Away From You And Your Family

Many Bay Area residents use repellents to keep mosquitoes away. Unfortunately, these don't work well. The reason mosquitoes find a way around or through repellents is that the acquisition of blood is not for daily sustenance. If it were, mosquitoes in the Bay Area might let their bellies ache and go looking for someone who doesn't have repellents on or around them. But taking a blood meal is a serious matter for a female mosquito. She needs the blood meal to reproduce. If she doesn't reproduce, her species will go extinct. In her tiny mind, she's probably thinking, "Not on my watch!" We don't know what those female mosquitoes are thinking, but studies show that they'll push through unpleasant smells and even attempt to bite skin that has a mosquito control substance on it. The better solution is to address the mosquitoes in your yard.

It is not commonly known, but the majority of mosquito bites people get in their yards are from mosquitoes that live in their yards. Mosquitoes don't fly around in your yard all day. Here's what they do.

1. A female mosquito enters your yard and lays a hundred eggs in a pool of stagnant water. She only needs an inch of water. An overturned frisbee with some rainwater in it will do nicely.
2. Those eggs hatch and the larvae emerge. Larvae don't fly. They stay in the water and develop into pupae, which also stay in the water. If you see baby mosquitoes in water, pour the water on the ground. The mosquitoes will dry up, and you won't have them turn into flying mosquitoes.
3. When the pupae emerge as flying adults, those adults find hiding places on your property. They prefer moist and shaded vegetation. The shade and moisture keep them from dehydrating, and they draw plant sap and nectar from plants to nourish themselves. Yes, you heard that right. Mosquitoes eat sap and nectar, not blood.
   When you go outside, the female mosquitoes come out of hiding to get a blood meal so they can lay eggs in your yard.
   Not every egg turns into a viable mosquito, but every time a female mosquito lays a batch of a hundred eggs in your yard, your mosquito problems worsen.

When you remove stagnant water resources in your yard, you significantly deter mosquitoes from reproducing. Female mosquitoes that wander into your yard may keep on wandering into the next yard. On top of this, reducing mosquitoes in your landscaping can make it less of an ideal location for mosquitoes to hide. Together, these two methods naturally deter mosquitoes and make it feel as though you're keeping mosquitoes away when you're actually just reducing their numbers.          

How Professional Mosquito Control Can Help

Since mosquito reduction is the key to making it feel like you're keeping mosquitoes away from your yard, the best solution is professional mosquito treatments. If you're in the Bay Area, we can help you with mosquito reduction for your property. Reach out to us today to request pest control service. While we all hope that one day will live in a world without mosquitoes, for now, the best we can do is reduce mosquitoes to prevent bites. Let Bay Pest help you with that.