3 ms·
That's interesting. I seem to kill small mosquitoes when they bite me. I've observed it multiple times. It lands, it bites and it becomes completely unresponsiv
by Kenji 5y ago
That's interesting. I seem to kill small mosquitoes when they bite me. I've observed it multiple times. It lands, it bites and it becomes completely unresponsive. Because I was drunk at the time, I chalked it up to blood alcohol content which will yield quite a bit of alcohol if a mosquito drinks so-and-so many times its own body weight (I did some basic math) but since then it also happened when I was sober.
- parsecs 5y agoThat's very interesting as well. Could you expand a little on what you mean by them becoming completely unresponsive?
- Kenji 5y agoBasically it remains "stuck" in position and completely stops moving, even if I wait 5 minutes. Poking it causes no reaction. I can just pick it up and put it away. It is either dead or it passed out.
- nrdvana 5y agoI’ve never heard anyone have that experience before. Maybe you should share this phenomenon with some relevant scientists?
- ProjectArcturis 5y agoEven if you were at 0.5% BAC (legal driving limit is 0.08%, and 0.5% would kill a lot of people), that's still about the alcohol percentage in NA beer. Unlikely to have any effect.
- throwawaylinux 5y agoLeaving aside the vast differences in physiology and effects of alcohol on humans vs mosquitoes, mosquitos can drink maybe 2x their body weight in blood. If you drunk 500 bottles of 0.5% a/v beer in 10 minutes it would likely have some effect.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> If you drunk 500 bottles of 0.5% a/v beer in 10 minutes it would likely have some effect. If you drank the same amount of 0% ABV water in that time, you’d probably die of water intoxication, so I’m not sure any adverse effects of the alcohol would be noticeable.
- throwawaylinux 5y agoI'm thinking exploded stomach. Point is it could be a lot of alcohol for the mosquito.
- xorcist 5y ago> If you drunk 500 bottles of 0.5% a/v beer in 10 minutes it would likely have some effect No, the alcohol wouldn't. Unless you distilled all that beer and ingested the alcohol alone. The massive liquid intake would kill you though. The liver doesn't store alcohol, so how many grams you ingest in total doesn't matter, only in what concentration. Keep in mind that alcohol is perfectly soluble in water too.
- loonster 5y agoA mosquito can drink 2-3x its body weight. It would not be the same as a NA beer. It would be more like getting a blood transfusion from a drunk.
- maxerickson 5y agoIf it was a pint and the drunk was heroic, it'd be like having 3 or 4 drinks. (~10 pints of blood in the donor, 1/10 of a lot of alcohol...)
- ThePadawan 5y agoI'm sorry for reading this as "north american" beer instead of "non-alcoholic" beer.
- actaeon169 5y agoIt's an easy mistake to make.
- Uberphallus 5y agoI had this happen to me. For most of my life, barely ever got bitten by mosquitos, and when they did, they usually died while feeding, on my skin. From age 30 onwards, I suffer them as much as the next guy, not sure what could have changed since.