Summer means outdoor BBQs, sunsets, fireworks… and mosquitos ugh! The season is meant to be spent outside, but how annoying are those mosquitos. Suddenly realizing that you have 10 red, puffy, itchy bumps on your legs is the actual WOAT. Unfortunately, mosquitos are kind of unavoidable during the summer, so how can you make sure that your bites go away as fast as possible?

夏天代表了户外烧烤、看日落、看烟火……啊，还有蚊子！这个季节注定要在室外度过，但蚊子太烦人了。突然发现腿上被叮了10个红红的、痒痒的大包真得吓一跳。不幸的是，蚊子在夏天几乎是不可避免的，所以怎么才能使被叮的包尽快消失呢？

Don't itch¹ them. You're kidding, right?! Nope… if you can avoid itching² your mosquito bites, they will be less itchy in the long run, and go away faster! Why? Well basically, once a mosquito bites you, it leaves behind its saliva³ which your body recognizes as a foreign substance. So, in response, your body's immune system produces antibodies to fight the invader⁴, which results in the release of histamine (the compound that makes things itch and swell). When you start itching a mosquito bite, you give your immune system another wake-up call, and more antibodies and histamine are released, aka, more swelling⁵, itching, and redness.

不要挠。你开玩笑吧？并没有……如果你能不去挠蚊子叮咬的部位，他们之后就不会那么痒，也会消失得更快！为什么呢？其实一旦你被蚊子咬了，留在你体内的蚊子唾液就会被你的身体视为异物，所以为了对抗异物，你身体的免疫系统会产生抗体来对抗入侵者，释放组胺（这种化合物会使皮肤发痒肿胀）。挠蚊子叮咬部位会再次唤醒免疫系统，然后就会释放更多的抗体和组胺，这就意味着会更肿更痒更红。

So, next time you've been bitten by the bug, try holding off as long as you can to scratch. You'll be thanking us later!

所以下次再被小虫子咬了的话，尽可能多地坚持一段时间不去挠，之后你会感谢我们的！