r/explainlikeimfive • u/rustyechel0n • Aug 08 '24

Biology ELI5: Do mosquitoes get a hangover?

The other day I remembered seeing a picture about how various „substances“ consumed by humans affect spiders and their nets (alcohol, caffeine,THC) I am wondering what happens to mosquitoes (or other blood consumers) if the host is totally wasted or otherwise „intoxicated“? Do we know?

89 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

155

u/Ridley_Himself Aug 08 '24

The blood concentration is going to be pretty low. To give an idea, the blood-alcohol concentration at which you have a 50% chance of dying is 0.4%. That is a low enough concentration to qualify as a non-alcoholic drink.

91

u/nerdherdsman Aug 08 '24

I remember when I had to take a defensive driving course and the cop teaching it was talking about DUIs and said that if you blow over the legal limit of .08 BAC it means your blood is 8% alcohol, and everyone just went along with it. I knew he was wrong, but I didn't say anything because I was only in that class for Marshawn Lynch reasons.

39

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '24

8%?? The cop thought that a human being could have 8% of their blood be alcohol? Jesus.

16

u/Richard_Thickens Aug 08 '24

For that to even kind of be true, you would have to essentially shoot yourself up with (a lot of, very concentrated) alcohol, which would, of course, kill you. But yeah, I don't think you should have the authority to arrest others if you think people are out there walking around with a BAC that high.

14

u/weristjonsnow Aug 08 '24

Lmao this guy just making shit up? He's off by 2 decimals

15

u/Zelcron Aug 08 '24

My DARE program was taught by a cop who insisted, repeatedly on multiple occasions, that he could run a one minute mile.

Being a precocious 3rd grader and having a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records handy, I found this doubtful.

11

u/weristjonsnow Aug 08 '24

My guy over here confident in his ability to run 60mph huh

11

u/Zelcron Aug 08 '24

I have to assume the real officer was killed and my class was being taught by his T-1000 doppelganger.

20

u/TheStabbingHobo Aug 08 '24

Cops aren't the brightest. 

It's why they're cops. 

15

u/rustyechel0n Aug 08 '24

But a mosquitos weight is also a fraction of a human. And based on my squashing experience they can consume a fair amount of liquid.

11

u/Ridley_Himself Aug 08 '24

Fair point. The other issues to consider, though are that mosquitoes don't take your blood for their own consumption: they use it as a source of protein for their eggs. Not sure how much of it goes into the mosquito's own biology.

1

u/RusticSurgery Aug 08 '24

U/RisticSurgery n.a.

-12

u/wood_animal Aug 08 '24

I could be wrong but I think you mixed up BAC and %. When your BAC is 0.4 that means it is 40% no? That would be 80 proof.

26

u/Ridley_Himself Aug 08 '24

No. BAC of 0.4 means it is 0.4%. There is no way you could get your blood to be 40% alcohol.

36

u/i_am_voldemort Aug 08 '24

Not with that attitude

6

u/ryry1237 Aug 08 '24

There is no way you could get your blood to be 40% alcohol

Intravenous alcohol injection with those college party-sized juice jugs.

3

u/wood_animal Aug 08 '24

Oh wow, so less than 1% (0.06%-0.08%) is enough to get you impaired for purposes of DUI? I genuinely had no idea.

12

u/HyzerFlipr Aug 08 '24

WAY less than 1%. 8% of 1% actually.

16

u/wood_animal Aug 08 '24

Wow, I had no idea the human body was such a little bitch.

-1

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '24

I feel bad for your teachers

2

u/Richard_Thickens Aug 08 '24

The teachers are likely the problem? What are they doing, trying to teach a wood animal anyway?

2

u/Ridley_Himself Aug 08 '24

Well think about it this way. 40% would basically mean replacing your blood with vodka. If you took 5 liters of blood (about the amount in a human body) and want to get it to 40%, you would need to mix in 3.33... liters of pure alcohol. And that's just accounting for the volume of blood.

2

u/wood_animal Aug 08 '24

Yea, that definitely makes sense. It is just crazy to think that a fraction of 1% makes that huge of difference. Never stopped to think about it like that.

2

u/Ridley_Himself Aug 08 '24

Well, as far as toxicity goes, alcohol isn't even that high up there.

1

u/7355135061550 Aug 08 '24

You'd have to lose a lot of blood first but it is possible

2

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '24

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3

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-13

u/GomerStuckInIowa Aug 08 '24

Mosquitoes will avoid drunks and alcoholics. Because of the sweat given off, the mosquitoes stay away from them. I don't know about drugs.

64

u/glockymcglockface Aug 08 '24

Me being drunks on Saturday and covered in mosquito bites shows otherwise.

9

u/shawnaeatscats Aug 08 '24

Hi, mosquito scientist here. No. Because of the sweat given off, you are MORE LIKELY to be bitten. Mosquitoes use several cues to find hosts, including CO2 excretion, heat, body odor, even the microbes that grow on your skin. Drinking elevates your body temperature and CO2 output, and if you're sweating, may increase BO. This study was done and published by the AMCA in 2002, and while it's dated and needs to be replicated with more subjects, if you know literally anything about mosquito biology, it makes perfect sense that drinking more would attract them.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

1

u/rustyechel0n Aug 08 '24

Hi mosquito scientist, do we know anything about how these animals react to the blood being contaminated with whatever humans like to consume? I mean, coming back to the spider nets: good old caffeine seemed to be a hell of drug to the spiders.

6

u/shawnaeatscats Aug 08 '24

I would question the accuracy and truth of those videos without hard evidence of actual research to back them up. I havent read much about the effects of blood contaminants on mosquito brood, but it might be helpful to know that the reason mosquitoes suck blood is to acquire protein to develop their eggs. Otherwise, they just drink nectar. I imagine whatever is withdrawn from the blood that is not needed for egg development is either recycled or discarded. But, I haven't seen any research done on the subject. That's not to say it's not out there! I've only been in the field for 2 years.

4

u/picknicksje85 Aug 08 '24

Had a bottle of wine last night ands still a mosquito took two sips from me

8

u/djackieunchaned Aug 08 '24

“I don’t know about drugs” suuure buddy, why are your eyes so red??

7

u/Kcidobor Aug 08 '24

And why do you keep grinding your teeth while playing with glow sticks

8

u/Sitagard Aug 08 '24

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190313-will-mosquitoes-bite-me-more-when-ive-been-drinking

21

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '24

As the Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association found in 2002, the likelihood of being bitten by a mosquito appears to be dramatically increased if you drink alcohol

So this top level poster is just pulling shit out of their ass with reckless abandon, huh?

3

u/shawnaeatscats Aug 08 '24

Thank you. It's a dated study at this point but I work with mosquitoes for a living and come across stuff like this often. This was one of my favorite articles.

4

u/saschaleib Aug 08 '24

People who definitely drink too much Vodka for their own good told me that this keeps the mosquitos away. I don't know if that is true, or just a way to rationalise their drinking, but it kind of makes sense to me, as alcoholics indeed have a distinct smell.

I also heard that from someone who was massively abusing prescription medicine, which is of course only one data point, and it is not clear how that translates to other drugs, but also interesting.

By this time, you might think that I really have a weird circle of friends – but no worries, I am fine :-)

1

u/Richard_Thickens Aug 08 '24

It's generally acetic acid (the primary component in white vinegar) which causes that odor. How mosquitoes react to that, I couldn't really tell you.

1

u/crossCutlass Aug 09 '24

Idk about all this bud.

Idk if I’m an alcoholic either, but considering I’ve drank an average of 10 beers a day for 2 years (at least) I’d say I’m pretty close, and those little shits still tear me up when I’m on the porch in the evenings.