Fort Worth's Ultimate Mosquito Bite Treatment Guide

Do you know that female mosquitoes are the only mosquitoes that bite? Yup. In fact, female mosquitoes are highly motivated to bite you. Why? It has to do with the reason why they're trying to bite you. Male and female mosquitoes eat nectar and plant sap for sustenance. When females search for a blood meal, it isn't because they're hungry; it is because they're ready to reproduce. If they don't reproduce, their species will go extinct. That's a big responsibility. So don't expect to keep mosquitoes from biting you when you stand in the smoke from a campfire, or place mosquito repellent torches or candles around your property. Mosquitoes can even bite you when you're covered in bug spray. When they do, there are a few things you should know. Here is everything you need to know about mosquito bite treatment in Fort Worth.

What Happens When A Mosquito Bites You?

Female mosquitoes have mouthparts that can pierce your skin and draw blood out of you. What you need to understand most about this process is that the saliva of the mosquito gets into you, and it is the saliva that causes issues.

General Treatment

Almost everyone is allergic to mosquito saliva. When you have an itchy red bump, surrounded by a rash, it is because your body is having an allergic response. Your body detects the foreign substance and sends histamine into the area to strengthen your white blood cells. Histamine is what causes the swelling, redness, and itchy sensation. This reaction can take hours or even a few days to occur. You can relieve the itch and reduce symptoms by using the following steps:

• Wash the mosquito wounds to remove any saliva on the wounds.

• Apply a cold compress.

• Take an antihistamine. Benadryl is commonly used.

• Apply an anti-itch cream to the wounds.

Don't Scratch Those Bites

Have you heard that you shouldn't scratch mosquito bites? This isn't an old wives' tale. It's true. The inflammation that occurs from the histamines becomes worse when the skin is scratched. Sure, you'll feel a little better for a short time because this releases serotonin and helps to fight the pain, but it won't last long. When the itch returns, it will be worse than before. 

You should also keep in mind that, if you chronically scratch mosquito bites, you can break the skin and create an open wound. This can lead to infection.

Disease

When mosquito saliva enters your body, it can do more than cause an allergic reaction. Mosquitoes can transmit harmful diseases, such as West Nile, malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, Zika virus, and more. Not all mosquitoes carry all mosquito-borne diseases. The mosquito species must be able to incubate the virus in its gut and transfer it to the salivary glands.

Treatment For Mosquito-Borne Diseases

If you notice medical symptoms after being bitten by mosquitoes, you should monitor the symptoms closely. While only a fraction of the U.S. population dies from mosquito-borne diseases and there are high risk groups, it can happen to anyone no matter how healthy you are. Here are a few common symptoms that are associated with mosquitoes and disease:

Encephalitis — This is a swelling of the brain. It is a very common symptom—so common that there are several mosquito-borne diseases with the word encephalitis in their names, such as Eastern, Western, St. Louis, La Crosse, and Japanese encephalitis. West Nile virus is also considered an encephalitis virus. If you have a headache, you may be suffering from one of these diseases.

Flu-Like Symptoms — If you experience a fever, chills, joint or muscle pain, lethargy, diarrhea, or vomiting, they could be the result of a mosquito infection.

Serious Symptoms —  When a mosquito-borne disease progresses, there can be a sense of confusion, a spike in fever, vision loss, confusion, seizures, paralysis, and coma.  

How To Mitigate The Risk

In most cases, mosquitoes are just a painful annoyance, and treatment for mosquito bite wounds is simple. Unfortunately, they can also present a significant medical risk. It is best to not get bitten. If you have mosquitoes in your yard, consider investing in mosquito control for your Fort Worth property.

At All-Safe Pest & Termite, we offer mosquito misting services and the installation and maintenance of the In2Care system. Misting applies a residual product to landscaping and other key areas to repel and knockdown mosquitoes. This method takes advantage of the fact that mosquitoes are lazy. They spend much more time resting and hiding than they do flying. The In2Care system provides a perfect breeding site for female mosquitoes. A single female can lay 100 eggs at a time. These traps stop those eggs from becoming irritating, illness-spreading pests in your yard.

Reach out to us today to learn more about mosquito control in Fort Worth. Our licensed and experienced technicians are looking forward to assisting you with this important protection for your family.