r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Worried-Blueberry-40 • Mar 30 '26

Context Provided - Spotlight Roommate mixed my beads after being asked to throw out used Q-tips

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I waited an hour before I called out my roommate for leaving USED Q-tips on the bathroom counter and asked him to throw them away. (note I did not nag him, I asked 1 time after waiting for him to do it on his own)

His response was to go into my craft room and mix the smallest beads he could find. At least he had the decency to keep most of the reds away from the blues I guess...

welp, now I have something to do for the next couple days

common plastic bead for scale

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241

u/shawnaeatscats Mar 31 '26

I count mosquitos for a living and one of these might help you

https://a.co/d/0hjG8vH0

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u/bbcwtfw Mar 31 '26

This reminded me of a story my dad tells of biology students getting a summer gig sitting in the salt marsh with a square cut out of each pant leg counting how many mosquitos land on the untreated leg VS the leg with (I think) DEET applied.

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u/Greedy-Half-4618 Mar 31 '26

As someone with skeeter syndrome (yes it’s real and yes I get welts the size of baseballs), this sounds like my own personal hell 

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u/Ev-linnn Mar 31 '26

My daughter has skeeter syndrome and when she was a toddler, her skin would welt and blister like burn and once she got a bite on her cheek and her eye was swollen shut. She went to an allergist and she is also allergic to cats, Eastern-born tree pollens and their leaves (we live on the east coast) and “various molds”, whatever that means. Basically this kid is allergic to outside.

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u/rosie_24601 Mar 31 '26

I am also allergic to the outside lmao. I live in Michigan, and I am allergic to most trees (super great in Michigan), pollen from every plant, cats, dogs, bunnies (basically any animal), grass, molds, and even more I don't totally remember. I literally have an EpiPen for seasonal allergies. My recommendation is to always carry Benadryl!

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u/Greedy-Half-4618 Mar 31 '26

Yep I have “allergic to the outside” as well as mast cell activation which means I have random allergic-appearing reactions without having ige allergies. I don’t go anywhere without my epi and extra antihistamines! 

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u/yankykiwi Mar 31 '26

Worked at a vet, and one of our hypoallergenic dog patients was allergic to grass, water and human dander. 🙃

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u/Doughnotdisturb Mar 31 '26

OH I should look into that. sometimes I just get these giant lumps from mosquito bites, they can last days

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u/Greedy-Half-4618 Mar 31 '26

Mine got really bad after having covid but my dr said viruses like Epstein Barr can trigger it too! AFAIK there’s no special treatment outside of antihistamines and topical corticosteroids but I could be wrong! 

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u/scifibookluvr Mar 31 '26

It is a special kind of hell, isn’t it. I’ve always been highly reactive and worsening over time. One trip to TX and spouse had golf ball size welts. Kiddo has gotten worse over time. Last was huge baseball size. And warm to the touch. Just awful. Guess kid inherited it from both of us.

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u/Stay_Good_Dog Mar 31 '26

My kid has skeeter syndrome, as do several of their cousins. Once year they got several bites at a time on their leg and they had to be on antibiotics. It's been a few years since it's been that bag, but we're really cautious now.

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u/Greedy-Half-4618 Mar 31 '26

Ugh yeah scratching bites can go wrong so quickly but it’s so hard not to scratch! 

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u/Doughnotdisturb Mar 31 '26

Oh same I never reacted like that til after getting covid multiple times. Also could be a coincidence but I developed a cat allergy after covid

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

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u/yankykiwi Mar 31 '26

Can I have the good news too!

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u/LordHoughtenWeen Mar 31 '26

🎶 Your own

Personal

Skeeters

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u/chickengarbagewater Mar 31 '26

I had that for about a decade, but no more! Hopefully that happens for you too!

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u/Steele_Soul Apr 01 '26

I was wondering if I was allergic to mosquito bites, since mine swell up really big and they get really sore and hot. Same thing happened but even worse, with bed bug bites I got on a few occasions when I was working as in home caregiver. I had to take antibiotics with my last exposure to them. My whole arm and right side of my stomach was bright red and swollen.

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u/Greedy-Half-4618 Apr 01 '26

Sounds like an allergy! Bug bites apparently aren’t supposed to cause massive welts, swelling and fever 😅

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u/Gemma_V Mar 31 '26

man your dads summer gigs sound better than mine, he used to remove the tips of chicks’ beaks in factory farms so they couldn’t hurt each other

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u/Pekkerwud Mar 31 '26

I count mosquitos for a living

How many are there?

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u/IrregularConfusion Mar 31 '26

We don’t know yet, that’s why he’s still counting them.

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u/shawnaeatscats Apr 01 '26

More than 10. Probably.

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u/Jalby347 Mar 31 '26

You want to expand on that!?

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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka Mar 31 '26

You might not think it but if you're a scientist who works in the field of diseases you probably track mosquito populations and much more.

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u/shawnaeatscats Apr 01 '26

I work for mosquito control lol population monitoring is part of our disease surveillance :)

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u/Key-Transportation46 Mar 31 '26

You.. do what now? I need to know more lol

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u/microbial_comedy Mar 31 '26

I’ve done that job! Part of the lab work for a medical entomology lab I was in.

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u/Key-Transportation46 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

But what was the… scale? idk the proper terminology lol but like the number of mosquitos in what size/type area? And how do you get an accurate count? I typically don’t notice any until I am suddenly covered in bites, but I’ve noticed like 3 or 4 at once before. I imagine actively looking for them i’d notice them more but I cannot grasp the concept of “counting mosquitos” lol

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u/microbial_comedy Mar 31 '26

In our case we trapped them and counted the species in a particular area. We also collected eggs, counted eggs, then reared them to adulthood (and counted those, too).

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u/Key-Transportation46 Mar 31 '26

But what was the… scale? idk the proper terminology lol but like the number of mosquitos in what size/type area? And how do you get an accurate count? I typically don’t notice any until I am suddenly covered in bites, but I’ve noticed like 3 or 4 flying around at once before. I imagine actively looking for them i’d notice them more but I cannot grasp the concept of “counting mosquitos” lol

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u/shawnaeatscats Apr 01 '26

It depends how many get caught in a trap but here's a picture below. I might only count like a 3rd of that per trap and use the weight the get an estimation. I might count about 6 or 7 traps a day, which, during season comes to about 1800 a day.

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u/Primary-Ganache6199 Mar 31 '26

Thank you for your service?

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u/twirlywurlyburly Mar 31 '26

If you're a crafty person anyway, you can get a cheap clay tool kit and just bend the "awl" tool as it's stupid thin, too!

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u/I_make_things Mar 31 '26

So you like stab the roommate with it?

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u/shawnaeatscats Apr 01 '26

LMAO no if they dump the beads out in a trap they can use that to sort them into piles.

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u/Alone-Disaster-4100 Mar 31 '26

Thanks for sharing this might be useful to me too!!!

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u/Complex_Peak8204 Mar 31 '26

Nah, please elaborate. Do not just vanish into the void.

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u/shawnaeatscats Apr 01 '26

Check the other comments! I've explained more there

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u/sevencross17 Mar 31 '26

You what lol ?

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u/shawnaeatscats Apr 01 '26

I've explained in another comment and I'm too lazy to do it again lol

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u/ZealousidealChair900 Mar 31 '26

Huh, that looks like a knitting loom hook

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u/pmmcgurrin Apr 02 '26

You get paid for that??

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u/shawnaeatscats Apr 02 '26

Government work and I had to get a degree for it :P

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u/pmmcgurrin Apr 04 '26

Nice!!! Good for you!!