July 10, 2026
Mosquito Season
Ruth Chan is an illustrator who lives in Brooklyn with her family. She writes and illustrates children’s books. For Cup of Jo, Ruth has written about many things, including pets, grief, OCD, moments of connection, and baby wonder. And here’s her beauty uniform and her favorite place to cry in public.
P.S. A very low-key summer checklist and a great summer read.
Tags: comics
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42 commentsThis is me! Love Ruth’s work as always.
Inspired by NYT Wirecutter, we got two Thermacells for our intensely mosquito-y backyard and it has been pretty great!
I’ve only been bitten a few times in my entire life and am outside the entire summer basically. I’ve read certain blood types are more saught after by mosquitos, and if you tend to run hot that also makes you more attractive. I am always cold and and -AB blood type FWIW. I think
HBK: This is the wildest statement I have ever read; I am not one to often be jealous of strangers on the internet, but wow… to be you. One memorable summer, when they were particularly bad, I woke up with ~35 bites on 1 arm – when sleeping INSIDE. On another occasion, I had so many on one side of my face that it puffed up so that if you poked my forehead a dent was visible. Type A+ FWIW.
Mosquitos find me aggressively. I don’t know if it’s blood type (I’m A -) but I emit some siren song for them. It’s horrible. My husband (O -) gets some sparse bites but nothing like I do.
Katy, I am A+ too and get SO many mosquito bites and definitely have skeeter syndrome, something I just discovered a few years ago. Never had a precious lil mosquito bite, they’re always huge and outrageous
There are some of us who somehow attract mosquitos. Whole swarms of them. I am one of those unfortunate people. For us, summer on the east coast, especially at dusk, is horrible. One of the reasons I moved west. And am covered in so much bug spray that my nail polish is soft and squishy. I HATE MOSSIES!
Thank you for this! I feel so seen haha (another mosquitoes-love-me blood type)
Midges, mosquitos. They head straight to me from May onwards. And every year I forget until that first, fatal itch. Cue huge lumps and bumps all over. This year: my face. Such a great look for summer.
Changed my life: https://www.amazon.de/heat-Insektenstichheiler-Smartphone-Chemiefreie-konzentrierter/dp/B0D26GWWD1/ref=asc_df_B0D26GWWD1?mcid=7d5c9e10a4bf3da6a4f344b7273cbc09&th=1&tag=googshopde-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=696221779800&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10746329836292592981&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9198195&hvtargid=pla-2302024773575&hvocijid=10746329836292592981-B0D26GWWD1-&hvexpln=0
Yes! This summer learned about how heat denatures the protein in mosquito saliva (the histamine response is to the proteins). I tested it by heating a metal spoon in a pot of water at to 55*C; it was a little too hot for my skin, but worked beautifully! I attract mosquitos and always swell up dramatically, even if I’m very careful to not scratch at them. I have since bought a heat pen from amazon (https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0BZ7D2S1W?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1) and while the temperature is a little lower than my spoon method, it still works very well! It’s tiny, fits in my pocket easily, and has made me much less hesitant to go out into the forest this summer. My kids are also appreciating it.
The heading graphic made me think it was about pretending you didn’t toot, not mosquitos!
Same, lol!
Omg I did too
Mosquito season is SO bad in DC that it started a whole movement this year! Anecdotally, the blocks that have organized themselves are experiencing way fewer mosquitoes than years past. It has been amazing to water my garden in peace for once! https://www.ittybittymosquitocommittee.org/
Always a good day when there’s a Ruth Chan comic in the mix! Her book “Thank You Neighbor” is my two-year-old’s favorite book these days, and it’s so sweet to see my kid wave and call out, “hello neighbor!” on our walks
Mosquitoes LOVE me. Go camping with me and nothing will bite you as they all come to visit me. Strangely enough though, when I went through chemo for cancer over 10 years ago, I was not attractive to mosquitoes. I would see them around me but they did not bite me …. I have heard that from other people as well. I’d rather take mosquitoes than chemo though.
My 7 year old daughter got 3 mosquito bites the other night: two on her forehead and one ON HER EYELID. why, cruel world!? Poor thing looked like she got punched in the eye for two days. Mosquitoes, gtfo.
We have been using mosquito dunks and made some buckets of doom this summer! Game changer – highly recommend!
Yes! Mosquitos are the worst! Give me bees, spiders, snakes—all the creepy crawlies—but mosquitoes need to go!! As soon as someone says the word “mosquito” or I hear that terrible buzz, I am paranoid and itching for hours.
Relatable, though I’m more like this over ticks, the past few years! Eeek!
This is so real, thank you Ruth!! “Mosquitos just love me” hive unite!!! (I love this Jordan Firstman skit, https://www.tiktok.com/@jtfirstman/video/6868990337159941382 – “She doesn’t seem that cool – no, we definitely do not love her”)
Hahaha
Ugh, I can spell NECTAR, I gotta drink more coffee when I’m procrastinating. Nector feels like a side-quest villain from the Trojan War.
Lauren, I have to tell you, this made me actually laugh out loud. Thank your past uncaffeinated self for this.
I was avoiding work the other day and thinking about the ol’ factoid that female mosquitoes are the only ones that bite humans, and in the ensuing “well then what do the males eat??” research rabbit hole I tumbled down I learned that, in what feels like a found Jezebel article when you compile it: – Male mosquitoes literally just feed on nector; their proboscises aren’t sharp enough to penetrate skin. – However, the males still like to vibe with and swarm around us, at least in one common species, which is just as annoying in practice as being swarmed by female mosquitoes, per Australian researchers. – Female mosquitoes also feed on nector, but they need blood to produce eggs. – If you soak a cotton ball with blood and offer it to male mosquitoes (which is low on my list of hobbies but has apparently appealed to scientists), they will prefer it to nectar and consume it BUT consuming the blood will reduce their life spans to just a few days (versus a month). They’re addicted to us, they don’t know that we’re toxic [tm Britney].
Maybe helpful for some because it works for me: Take regular B complex vitamin, mosquitos do not like the smell (or something) and will largely avoid you. I take b complex but my little sister does not and she is regularly eaten alive. For whatever reason, she refuses to take vitamins. Most people are deficient and any excess is just peed out. They do have a strong smell but humans can’t smell them after ingested so it’s not an issue for me. Try it!
Whoa! I’m trying this. Thank you!
This is anecdotal not scientific. “ While the desire for systemic repellents is high, ineffective repellents put one at risk of insect-vectored pathogens. Vitamin B1, or thiamine, has been touted as a systemic insect repellent since 1943, and denounced as an ineffective placebo for just as long. This paper presents a scoping review of 104 relevant case reports, research studies, and review articles to trace the evolution of this idea and identify an evidence-based, scientific consensus.” https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-entomological-research/article/thiamine-vitamin-b1-as-an-insect-repellent-a-scoping-review/53BC3319803B14C2218777BE4D35C7B2
I have tried this – no noticeable difference on mosquitos, but hey…it can’t hurt you as Greta said, so why not go for even a marginal impact.
Glad it works for you. I take B vitamins and mosquitos still eat me alive. Also not all vitamins are water soluble so depending on the vitamin you can’t just pee out the excess, or there are still side effects. Like taking too much vitamin C can give you the runs AND you will pee out excess. Too much vitamin D (which is hard to do but possible with supplements) can cause too much calcium in your blood and lead to feeling VERY sick-vomiting, excessive thirst, and general weakness. Do your research and work with your trusted health care professional of choice, dear internet sisters! What might be great for her may not be for you at all.
Please don’t take vitamins or any supplements without lab testing to ensure you are accidentally deficient first. A friend of mine was on B vitamins and ended up with toxicity symptoms such as numbing of hands, etc.
ACTUALLY** not accidentally!
My super mom power is that i will attract all the mosquitoes and get bitten myself, thus protecting my kids. >:-(
My one super power in life is that mosquitos don’t like me. I’ve been bite maybe 3 times in my life, but for the most part, they won’t come near me. I wish I could share this trait with others!
you’re lucky, Sarah! my superpower is that they do like me — so anyone can hang out near me and is less likely to get bitten themselves!
Same, Sarah! Even if I’m covered in mosquitoes, they almost never bite me and, if they do, I don’t really get itchy bumps. May be the only rejection I’m not sad about.
Oh my gosh I would LOVE to have that superpower, Sarah! I hope you revel in it! I get so, so many bites even when others say there are no mosquitoes here. Our yard has a lot of mosquitoes but I also have bats and birds and don’t want to apply anything to kill the mosquitoes that could affect the wildlife. The barn swallows and bats need to get to work. If my husband starts getting annoyed by the mosquitoes, he calls me to come outside so they leave him alone! Haha
I love Ruth Chan’s work so much. If anyone needs a Friday glimmer/pick-me-up, reread her Beauty Uniform here. https://cupofjo.com/2021/03/09/ruth-chan-illustrator-beauty/
Ohh, I don’t remember seeing this post the first time! It seems like her essence is translated through her work flawlessly. Charming in every way!
I feel seen
Me, too! Mosquitos adore me! My first bite this season was on the bridge of my NOSE in the HOUSE, the biggest and worst bite yet!