RTL.de>
July 14, 2021 – 6:26 pm Clock
–
How dangerous are stings?
When the sun is shining, the insects will be there immediately again this year: bees, mosquitoes, horseflies, ticks and wasps. Sometimes it happens so fast that you don’t even know what just stung you. So that that doesn’t happen in the first place, explains Dr. Nina Buschek in an interview about what can be done preventively, for example.
Miss Dr. Buschek, you read from time to time about other species that are making their home here as a result of climate change, such as the tiger mosquito. Do these new species also bring new diseases with them?
Dr. Nina Buschek: “Yes, that is actually a topic that will occupy us in the next few years, because of the global warming and the changed climatic conditions […] Other animals that are usually at home in Asia or other tropical regions also feel at home here. In addition, we live in a networked, globalized world and we travel and with the ships, the containers and the airplanes we bring the animals with us. One animal – the tiger mosquito – has already landed in Italy and is already spreading in Europe and has already been sighted in Germany. It can actually transmit tropical viral diseases: Dengue fever, Chikungunya fever, Zika fever. At the moment this is not a big issue in Germany because the populations are still too small, but it could come and is already an issue in the holiday countries where we Germans like to go. “
What can you do preventively? Are there certain foods that attract or repel insects? And what about perfume and fragrances?
Dr. Nina Buschek: “Well, the perfume can actually attract mosquitoes. […] So what I ate or drank before, doesn’t really matter. Smoking cigarettes at the table doesn’t help either. Because the mosquito finds its host. The only thing that really helps are insect repellent sprays like those you can buy at the drugstore or pharmacy. Because there are synthetic substances in it, which have also been tested for compatibility, and they disturb the mosquito’s olfactory organ and then it really doesn’t find us anymore.
You know it: One is completely bitten, the other has nothing. Is it because of the perfume or do some really have “sweeter blood”?
Dr. Nina Buschek: “There is no such thing as sweet blood. But it is true that some people are stung more than others. […] What the mosquito is looking for is a host and a mammal is looking for it. The mammal is warm, it breathes, it perceives it and it exudes a wide variety of vapors: sweat, body odors. And there it is just the particular mixture that attracts the mosquito and some taste better and others not so good. “
–
— .
