Mosquitoes Inject Saliva

What's in the spit? For the mosquito to obtain a blood meal, it must circumvent the vertebrate physiological responses. The mosquito, as with all blood feeding arthropods, has mechanisms, that effectively block the hemostasis system with their saliva, which contains a mixture of secreted proteins. Mosquito saliva negatively affects vascular constriction, blood clotting, platelet aggregation, and angiogenesis and immunity as well as creating inflammation. Mosquito saliva also contains enzymes that aid in sugar feeding and antimicrobial agents to control bacteria growth in the sugar meal from plants.

With all that said, mosquitoes have an impressive system of getting our blood. But that's only the half of it. Contained within the saliva of an infected mosquito are pathogens that carry disease. These pathogens can be transmitted to the warm-blooded host which the mosquito feeds on. The process is as follows, mosquito locates its target. The mosquito then finds a great landing spot on the victim. The mosquito squats and injects her hypodermic needle into and through the skin of the unsuspecting host. The saliva is injected into the bite area. The contents of the saliva as mentioned above, carry a wide array of anticoagulant proteins contained within the insect as well as possibly the pathogen of disease. So in essence it's really not what's being taken out of you that will make you sick, it's what the mosquito injects into you they can have a drastic impact on your health.