As if sucking our blood wasn’t bad enough, I was horrified to learn that mosquitoes also pee on us while they’re drinking. Yuck!

In this time machine, we revisit a 1987 paper published in Physiology that explains why. Female mosquitoes require blood meals to obtain the proteins necessary for egg production. During a single meal, they can consume up to twice their body mass in blood. That’s like a 150-pound person chugging a 300-pound smoothie and then trying to make a quick getaway.

To lighten their load, mosquitoes urinate water and salt onto their host’s skin even before they finish their meal. (How rude!) This helps them to retain needed proteins while getting rid of excess salt and water from their meal.

If that’s not gross enough, other researchers found that a drop of “urine” may collect on a mosquito’s abdomen where it evaporates to help them cool off while drinking warm blood (Lahondre and Lazzari, 2012). Personally, I’d rather just sweat, thank you very much.

I sure am glad that humans did not evolve from mosquitoes. Can you imagine how awkward a dinner date would be?

Sources

KW Beyenbach and DH Petzel. Diuresis in mosquitoes: Role of a natriuretic factor. Physiology. 2(5): 171-175, 1987. https://doi.org/10.1152/physiologyonline.1987.2.5.171

C Lahondere, Lazzari CR. Mosquitoes cool down during blood feeding to avoid overheating. Current Biology. 22(1): 40-45, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.11.029

• Red, White, and Bison: Celebrating Freedom and National Bison Month
• When fasting bites back: The bile dilemma in tiger sharks

Categories: Extreme Animals, Nature's Solutions, Time Machine

Tags: American Physiological Society, blood, health, mosquito, physiology