Sticking your hand in a box full of mosquitoes so that they can sting you may seem like the stuff of nightmares. However, for biologist Perran Ross this is part of his job and he takes great pride in it. Perran Ross works at the University of Melbourne and researches “mosquitoes, crop pests and beneficial insects.” Every day he has to feed his blood to the mosquitoes in the lab. A popular Instagram account, 60 Second Docs, showed his strange “mosquito feeding routine” in a video where hundreds of mosquitoes latch onto Perran Ross’ arm and suck blood.
Perran Ross described this weird process as “Most people wonder why would anyone volunteer to stick their arm in a cage of mosquitoes. But they’re such beautiful creatures. I am Dr Ross. I am from Melbourne and I let mosquitoes sting me for research.” As per the video, Perran Ross lets mosquitos bite for 15 seconds. He goes through multiple mosquito enclosures. His “biggest haul” was 15,000 mosquito bites. Perran Ross is also known as the Mosquito-Man.
Many people expressed their discomfort with Perran Ross’ “mosquito feeding routine”. An Instagram user wrote, “This actually caused a visceral physical response in me.” Someone inquired, “What I want to know is he is building up a tolerance against the itching!?”
Another one wrote, “It seems as though mosquitoes are a special interest for him. He got a bit emotional at first when discussing them. I’d be interested in hearing more about his reasoning. I realise they feed many animal populations and are a part of the web of food but they also spread so many diseases and are responsible for a lot of suffering. Malaria, dengue, West Nile virus and on and on.”
People also wondered if there are alternative ways to feed research mosquitoes. An Instagram user wondered, “Instead of having to go through getting bitten, would it be feasible to do a blood draw and set it out in a dish for them instead? Like putting some anti-clotting additive in it to prevent it from coagulating? Or would that deter the mosquitoes?” Someone else wrote, “Can’t he just fill like a sausage casing with blood and let them feed that way?”
Back on April 3, Perran Ross shared a photo of his mosquito-bitten arms and showed how different mosquitoes leave different marks.
In the caption, he wrote, “Reactions to mosquito bites can differ dramatically between people, but also between mosquito species. These are my arms right after feeding 500 mosquitoes from two different mosquito species. Yes, the one on the left is much itchier!”
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