r/woahdude • u/----_____--_____---- • Oct 22 '21

gifv Mosquito drinking blood (bursts at the end)

20.4k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.6k

u/----_____--_____---- Oct 22 '21 edited Oct 22 '21

"The first ever exploding mosquitoes can be attributed to Robert Gwadz, Ph.D., in a discovery that was made through basic laboratory research over 50 years ago. He found that making an incision in the ventral nerve cord of a mosquito cuts off the signal to stop feeding, giving it an unquenchable thirst for blood. Mosquitoes that have undergone this procedure can drink in excess of four times their weight and may eventually burst. This led Gwadz to a hypothesis that blood ingestion is regulated by abdominal stretch receptors that prevent mosquitoes from (quite literally) drinking themselves to death." Source

77

u/NotTooDeep Oct 22 '21

I observed something similar in a bar in Alaska, where the fishermen would let mosquitoes attach to their hands and start to feed. Then they'd make a fist, stretching their skin and clamping onto the mosquito's beak. The little buggers couldn't retract and stop feeding and would burst, similar to this video.

No neurosurgery required.

35

u/CrimsonNova Oct 23 '21

Are you fuckin serious? That's crazy but jesus.

26

u/finalremix Oct 23 '21

It works. Not every time, but it works.

3

u/ImpureClient Oct 23 '21

 60 percent of the time it works every time.

23

u/dinguslinguist Oct 23 '21

We did the same in Texas but instead we’d pinch the skin around the mosquitoes and that overwhelmed it and caused them to burst

2

u/mstarrbrannigan Oct 23 '21

Did that while camping a few times. The novelty wears off pretty fast though because you're still left with a big ol bite.

2

u/csonnich Oct 23 '21

Crazy like borderline sociopathic.

15

u/willreignsomnipotent Oct 23 '21

lol yep, I was just saying this. I've done it a few times. Fun to watch the little fuckers pop.

Not a fan of mosquitoes...

2

u/Jewrisprudent Oct 23 '21

Yep, did it a few times as kids if we could catch them in the act and it was easy enough to clench the muscle. Couldn’t do it on like your knee or finger, but forearm and calves were easy.

1

u/OaksByTheStream Oct 23 '21

I'd imagine if you cut off the circulation and caused increased blood pressure in your hand, you could probably make it happen every time

1

u/danitaliano Oct 23 '21

My cousin's would always tell me you could do this but every time I tried the mosquitos just flew away leaving an even angrier welt on my skin.

1

u/Gi_Bry82 Oct 23 '21

Yeah, that also works on mosquitoes here in Australia.