The eternal question(mine at least) mosquitoes...

[dtknow]

I've pondered this, asked people, and tried to experiment a few times but haven't been able to answer it for myself. Being the "critter guy" I get this question alot. Particularly on camping trips...but then you are usually either too impatient, too tasty, or not tasty enough to do the experiment.

True or false?
If a mosquito bites you, if you flex the muscle its on, pinch/stretch the skin it is on will it get stuck and drink blood until it bursts?

 

[Nick12007]

It's not a matter of flexing the muscle, you have to trap its mouthparts, usually by pinching it in, but I have never successfully done it, although a friend of mine has. Yes it's possible, but not reliably possible.

 

[Bill S]

If a mosquito bites you, if you flex the muscle its on, pinch/stretch the skin it is on will it get stuck and drink blood until it bursts?

Nope. First, mosquitos don't penetrate as far as the muscle - they barely penetrate the skin. You can catch them by pinching the skin together, and they'll remain trapped until you release the skin - but they won't pop. Remember - they fill their bellies by sucking the blood, not by having blood shot into them. They have no more ability to explode themselves by sucking too much blood than you do by eating too much food.

 

[dtknow]

Thanks Bill! A few people(who I'd imagine wouldn't tell any fish stories) have claimed to have seen it before...and of course it gets passed around. Still open to a FIRST HAND or otherwise actually seeing them burst.

Another popular one is feeding molasses or something like that to ants and making them burst...but I'm guessing that one is false. Their is another one involving sea gulls and some kind of pill too.

 

[Aquanut]

During my many Boy Scout camping trips as a kid in the SE Alaska rain forest we tried this continually(plenty of opportunity). Get one on our arm/hand and make a hard fist. We could get them to get really engorged but never pop. Makes for a really itchy bite though. Calamine, calamine Ra, Ra, Ra. Thanks for bringing back some fond memories of my childhood (as weird as this sounds I'm serious)

 

[Bill S]

Another popular one is feeding molasses or something like that to ants and making them burst...but I'm guessing that one is false. Their is another one involving sea gulls and some kind of pill too.

I've heard a few others as well. One that made the rounds a few years back was that feeding uncooked rice to sparrows would make them burst - presumably as a bellyful of rice soaked up digestive juices and expanded it would get so big the sparrow would burst. But seed-eating birds fill their crop before they fill their bellies, and in the crop the rice gets ground up and does all the expanding it's able to do before it goes to the belly. And the crop only holds small amounts of food at a time. Still, even though it can't happen, there were plenty of people who either claimed to have witnessed it themselves, or knew someone who had. Just human nature I guess.

 

[Aquanut]

Ive seen pigeons eat wheat kernels until they cant fly and not blow up. Same with ducks and corn kernels. Since my wife agrees i guess its not an old wives tale.

 

[bugmankeith]

I had a mosquito on my arm and I flexed my arm, it still flew away after.

It was alka seltzer with gulls, and people claim their stomach's exploded, not the whole bird. So they say yes it would kill them.

I never saw it first hand so who knows, but im not going to try it.

 

[zinto]

Many birds (and I think some other critters as well) lack the ability to pass gas, and the alka seltzer will explode the stomach of the bird. My grandpa used to do it to pigeons before I was around. Sadly, it's quite effective.

My dad claims he's had a mosquito explode, but still not a first hand experience, so I don't know for sure. He didn't do anything differently from what you guys are talking about though - just pinched the skin. Interesting stuff!

-Nick

 

[Drachenjager]

Tobasco sauce

Eat lots of tobasco sauce and they will burst into flames ...dont you guys watch commercials lol

 

[Nick12007]

you can, however, make a fly explode by feeding it on successive increasing concentrations of sugar solution. or so second semester bio told us ;-)