The mosquito diatribe

I am a lover of creatures great and small, and I am generally averse to causing harm to anything. I make special exceptions to mosquitoes and cockroaches. Whereas the cockroach seems inherently skin-crawlingly revolting, the offensiveness of the mosquito is more subtle, its parasitic nature combined with its itchy injection. But both are bothersome for their multiplicity and their elusiveness.

Pruritus

Few things elicit more frustration than being in a darkly lit room with dark colored surfaces (easy hiding places) and being stalked by a mosquito, or who knows maybe two or three. They buzz and hide, appear for a second, SWAT! when you just know you caught it between your palms only to open them and reveal in fact it escaped again. Completely disappeared. You turn on a light, then you turn on all the lights looking high and low, maybe rustle the curtains a bit.

About the time I get 4 consecutive bites I feel like my brain chemistry changes. My primitive brain takes over and I become a panicked primate stalked by lions or hyenas. My mind will not rest until it finds the peace of knowing there will be no more bites, no more itchiness. The repellant wears off too fast. The only way to be sure is to hunt them down with ready hands, eyes picking out dark specks on the walls, the curtains, the furniture; the little hind legs dangling in the air, sensing any change in air pressure, any warmth, the smell of breath and hot blood. And when the dark blood (my blood!) gets smeared on my hands the satisfaction wears off too soon because there are too many out there — just beyond this mosquito net, or window screen, or car door — the larva wriggling by the thousands, billions in stagnant pools of water.

I am actually lucky that my reaction to the bites is not as strong as some people, and I have good will power to resist the urge to scratch and let the itchiness subside. But does the world really need these insect vampires? The fish and frogs that eat the larva surely will find other things to fill their bellies; as will the dragonflies and spiders that gobble up the adult mosquitoes like chicken wings.

And then there’s the diseases. Because I’ve had dengue before, a long time ago, luckily not malaria or worse. But I know the toll. So to my mind they have too many strikes against them.

Enough is enough.

Mosquitoes - image source