The 1 Thing You Should Never, Ever Do If You Get A Mosquito Bite

Every summer, I get eaten alive by mosquitoes. My arms and legs get covered in bites that I scratch until they become bloody bruises that scab over and take weeks to heal. I know I’m treating my mosquito bites all wrong because, well, I have the scars to show it. Most mosquito bites go away within a week or so ― unless you don’t take proper care of them.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when you get bit by a mosquito , the bug injects saliva into your body via its proboscis, the little needle-like body part that sucks up your blood. That saliva contains an anticoagulant that keeps your blood flowing so the bug can get a hearty meal to lay its eggs. The toxins in that saliva are thought to be what makes their bites feel warm and itchy.

Dr. Bobbi Pritt , the director of the Clinical Parasitology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic and a spokesperson for the College of American Pathologists, said this is because your body mounts an immune response to the saliva and releases a wave of histamines and leukotrienes. This reaction varies from person to person, and bug to bug, which is why some people develop significant swelling and soreness while others just get a mildly itchy bump.

Regardless of how you react to mosquito bites, doctors agree there’s one thing you shouldn’t do when you get a bite: scratch it.

Why You Should Avoid Scratching Your Bug Bites

It can be tempting to scratch mosquito bites given how incredibly itchy they can get, but you really want to avoid doing so, Pritt said.

The main reason: There are many different types of bacteria that live on our skin and our bodies — like Staphylococcus and Streptococcus — that, for the most part, are harmless, according to Pritt. “But if you have an