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Mosquito splinters (lemmy.cafe)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Just a random shower thought.

Mosquito's proboscis is sharp enough to penetrate your skin. So when you smack it while it is in the process of drawing your blood, isn't there a chance of its proboscis being forcefully jammed into your skin, leading to some sort of "splinter"? Or does it somehow loses its stiffness the moment it feels the impact?

I've never encountered nor heard of such occurrence in my lifetime of killing those buggers, but wondering if such a thing is even possible. If such could happen, I could only imagine the risk associated with having a piece of foreign organic matter being embed in the body

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

The body deals pretty well with tiny objects becoming embedded in the skin. Generally, the immune system breaks it down, and flushes it out of the body through the lymphatic system.

If the immune system can't break it down, fluid will build up. Pus may expel it through the wound it made upon entry. If the wound heals over the object, an abscess may form. Fluid will collect in a pocket, like a pimple or boil. And like a pimple or boil, it will eventually pop, hopefully expelling the foreign object at the same time.