this past Friday, a mosquito bite knocked me on my ass.

[vash]

thursday, i missed watering my garden. i did it in the evening to catch up. i put on pants, and a jacket..but a few mosquitos ran the gaunlets and got me on my ankles. no biggie, i wiped the bites with this itch cream i bought in thailand..

that evening my legs got sore. i wrote it off as cycling sore. but it felt different. friday, went to work, came home, legs still weird sore..like flu sore, only in my legs. i jogged anyways. i got half a block and had to take a knee. wtf? caught my breath, and limped-jogged the 2 mile loop. i was sucking air, i had to stop to sit down occasionally..

i got home, had a ripping headache..took a shower, and was wiped out. cooking, wore me out. i laid on the couch, and my wife took my temp. 100..

weird!! only leg sore, fever, and headache..no other symptoms.
\
went to bed, and woke up awesome..slight pain in my chest..

my doctor buddy, joked..you probably got west nile fever..i hope he was joking, but it has been found in my area.

i hate mosquitos. what is their purpose here on earth? bat-food?

[masraum]

Wow, glad it was short lived.

[gatotom]

Ahhh, the purpose of those little bastards is to aggravate our life.

Where I live they used to be a major pain, about 10 yrs ago the county put together a program to eliminate the little varmints not by spraying but treating the breeding grounds.....result, what is a mosquito??

Actually I got bite by one on my boat in the marina last week.

[Brian in VA]

Been traveling? Legs swelling? The worst-case-scenario that pops in my head is DVT and when you say chest pain I start thinking of a PE. I'm sure it is just some viral thing but any swelling? Calf pain?

[GH85Carrera]

Sorry you are sick. There are several diseases mosquitoes carry and they are in the USA now.

The purpose of the mosquitoes on earth is the same as most other parasites. Like the worms that eat the eyes of children, and many other parasites that are to just horrible to contemplate. That purpose is to reproduce and pass on their genes. Evolution at work. Survival of the fittest.

I wish we could kill all the mosquitoes on earth. Last night just after I turned off the lights and snuggled into bed I heard the sound that all rational people hate, a buzzing mosquito next to my ear.

[vash]

Originally Posted by Brian in VA

Been traveling? Legs swelling? The worst-case-scenario that pops in my head is DVT and when you say chest pain I start thinking of a PE. I'm sure it is just some viral thing but any swelling? Calf pain?

Nah. Been home being normal. My boss got the dvt thing this week. Scary. I'll take the bug bite.

Glad it was short lived. I was like Wolverine with the mystery bug


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

[Amail]

I hired a coworker last year who is confined to a wheelchair. West Nile Virus from a mosquito bite paralyzed him about five years ago.

This is nothing to brush off. I don't know what could be done this late in the game, but it would be worth a call to your MD.

[Brian in VA]

Ok good. There's some new viral illness spreading thanks to those things too, can't remember the name (and too lazy to google right now too)

[Moses]

Originally Posted by vash

i wiped the bites with this itch cream i bought in thailand..

Nothing good happens after Thai itch cream gets involved.

[rusnak]

The moral of this story: never water your garden!

[scottmandue]

You must have pissed off a high ranking government official... they usually reserve the robo-mosquito assassins for the super double counter spy's.

But then...

How do we know for sure you are not a super double counter spy? huh? huh?

dun
dun
DA!

[71scgc]

Skeeters will hunt me out of a crowd. Curiously, I get a different reaction depending on where I get bit.
If I get bit on my right forearm it will swell up to looking like Popeye. Left forearm? The normal reaction...
The worst are the no-see-'ems. They bite fast, too.
The best solution? The strongest DEET repellent you can find. 30% ain't enough. 70% minimum. The old Army issue stuff that came in the OD green Airsol brand vials is my fave. It's about 70% DEET.
Deep Woods Off in the blue pump spray bottle is good as well. It's close to 100% DEET. I take it and dump it in an empty Airsol vial.
DO NOT get any DEET near your eyes. It will swell them shut!!

Carter

[Porsche-O-Phile]

This is a big reason I'm removing a lot of the bushes and trees from my property. No habitat (dead leaves, places to trap water and dampness), no mosquitoes, no diseases. Plus less crapola that I have to maintain. It's easy to crack a beer and blast around on a riding mower occasionally just to keep the grass from and kill the habitat for any ticks while I'm at it... Certainly easier and less work than dealing with downed leaves and branches.

I'm putting in a lot of rockscaping and concrete too. Clean, nice looking, no bugs.

I bought a mosquito magnet a couple of years ago - the thing is amazing and works great but is just too damn expensive to run regularly ($100+ a month in propane plus the proprietary "attractant" junk they don't bother to tell you about when you buy it, at least another $20 a month). They do work great though. It's very satisfying to dump out a big bag of dead mosquitoes into the trash once a week.

[id10t]

Plain old alcohol - either rubbing or drinking - is great at stopping itches from skeeter bites.

And for keeping them off of you, Vicks Vapor Rub works really well.

[stomachmonkey]

Yeah WNV is a problem.

We have people die from it around here.

I am ruthlessly vigilant about standing water.

Those little mother****ers can breed in as little as a beer cap of water.

FWIW headache and fever are WNV symptoms.

Don't screw around with this.

[vash]

Can we develop a resistance against the virus?

My poor wife. I never get bitten if she is around. They fly around me to get to her.


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

[drleah]

You do develop a degree of immunity from natural infection. Horses at least have background titers for about 3 years following natural infection. All of the encephaltides are nasty. +1 on what stomach monkey said


Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Winston Churchill

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by vash

Can we develop a resistance against the virus?

My poor wife. I never get bitten if she is around. They fly around me to get to her.


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

Same for me when my wife is around. She and I joke that mosquitoes love Chinese food. Or more specifically, female Chinese food. Ouch!

[intakexhaust]

When we lived on the lake, windy days were great but in the stagnant summer days the mosquitos were terrible. Eventually we put up a Purple Martin condo and two bat houses. Incredible nature at work! We could sit out on the deck, have an evening dinner with NO mosquitos. A few other tips: Keep those small plant dish plates drained and refresh daily the water in bird baths.

[Mike80911]

As mentioned there is a new virus being spread by Mosquitos and your symptoms seem to be in line with the new virus. It originated in the Caribbean but has reached the US.
RALEIGH: Mosquito-borne illness from Caribbean shows up in NC for first time | Health & Science | NewsObserver.com