{"id":7351,"date":"2026-07-07T12:51:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/?p=7351"},"modified":"2026-07-07T12:51:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:51:49","slug":"scratching-mosquito-bites-significantly-prolongs-itch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2026\/07\/07\/scratching-mosquito-bites-significantly-prolongs-itch\/","title":{"rendered":"Scratching mosquito bites significantly prolongs itch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Don’t scratch, gone in ten minutes\u2014scratch, and itch can continue for a week<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Murray Sherriffs<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science has entered the fray about grandma’s advice to not scratch that mosquito bite because it only makes things worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using mice, researchers have determined how a mildly annoying itch can put you on an itch-relief-scratch cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

University of Pittsburgh dermatologist Dr. Daniel Kaplan led the research team which has scientifically determined that\u2014if you can ignore the bite and its lure\u2014the urge to itch is \u201cgone in five or 10 minutes for most people, but if you scratch, it will last about a week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They put collars on some mice\u2014others were collarless\u2014dropped itch inducing chemicals on the animal, waited and observed that the mice who could scratch did a whole lot more scratching than the cone-wearers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So like, grandma said, don’t scratch, put some mud on it and get on with your day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Murray Sherriffs Science has entered the fray about grandma’s advice to not scratch that mosquito bite because it only makes things worse. Using mice, researchers have determined how a mildly annoying itch can put you on an itch-relief-scratch cycle. University of Pittsburgh dermatologist Dr. Daniel Kaplan led the research team which has scientifically determined<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nScratching mosquito bites significantly prolongs itch - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2026\/07\/07\/scratching-mosquito-bites-significantly-prolongs-itch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scratching mosquito bites significantly prolongs itch - Newscoverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Murray Sherriffs Science has entered the fray about grandma’s advice to not scratch that mosquito bite because it only makes things worse. 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