Mossquito Intelligence

[Leapers]

Hey everyone
sorry if i have spelt Mossquito wrong not sure how its goes but anyway this is not a spelling question!

Do mossquitos know that when they bite you their saliva is a numbing thing so you cant feel it, or do they jsut slobber over you and hope for the best they dont want to be squashed?

Also i went camping last week and took some mossquito repelling candles with me and after a few days camping i remembered about them but hadnt got any bites yet and lit one next morning i had three bites on my legs so that night i lit another and again the next morning i had three more bites. Do they think that if your trying to repell them with smelly candles the flesh must be extra juicy and tasty so come to get you anyway?

Thanks

[Clanad]

For starters, the mosquito's "bite" (only females are capable of taking blood) doesn't numb the victim by its "saliva". It does inject some saliva during the bite in order to thin the blood so it doesn't coagulate in the narrow channel of the mosquito's proboscis. When it's done feeding, some of this saliva remains in the wound. This causes an immune system response and itching. The welt tha it produces is the evidence the victim's body is breaking down the proteins tha twere injected (according to Revolution Health).
Secondly, the citronella type candles are largely ineffective unless the human stays within the smoke cloud produced by the candle... which is pretty difficult. As far as what they "think"... mosquitos and other insects can only operate on instinct since their tiny "brains" have only about 200,000 neurons compared to an estimate somewhere north of 100 billion for humans.
Logic is not the mosquito's forte'... Come to think of it, logic is not neccessarily some human's forte either...

[Leapers]

Thanks Clanad, that was an interesting read but it was strange that i got bit when the candles were lit and not otherwise i thought they may be getting wise to my attempts to keep them away.