• Question: What are the types of posions in the bug bite?

    Asked by francesrosexxx to PB, Katy on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Katy Brown

      Katy Brown answered on 24 Jun 2013:


      It depends on the type of bug. For mosquito bites, the saliva of the mosquito is full of all kinds of chemicals to make it easier for the mosquito to drink your blood – chemicals to stop the blood clotting, to make the blood vessels wider and to stop platelets in the blood gathering around the bite. Swelling and itching are the result of an allergic reaction to these chemicals by your body.

    • Photo: Peter Balfe

      Peter Balfe answered on 24 Jun 2013:


      Bugs bite to get blood, to do that they puncture the skin. This is different from a sting, where the delivery of a toxin is the main agenda (notably formic acid). There are 2 problems with bites. Many insects inject vasodilators (blood vessel relaxants) to promote blood flow and a local anaesthetic to prevent you feeling the bite (and killing them), these proteins act as triggers for the immune response leading to local swelling and irritation.
      More seriously many human pathogens are carried by these bites, most notably malaria, yellow fever and dengue. Here in the northern climes the bites of ticks, which can transmit Lyme disease, is probably the most common disease you get this way. Of course if you’re feeling historical, there’s always a nice spot of plague….

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