Mosquitoes are a constant presence here in Arenillas, but get worse around this time of year. I’m told that it’s because the hot season is starting, but there have been crazy amounts of mosquitoes the past week even though the temperature hasn’t changed. There are two mosquito borne diseases to worry about here, Malaria and Dengue Fever. The first few moths I was here I was trying to catch Dengue and get it over with. At the time I was living with my host family and had an air conditioner and had my own bathroom 4 feet from my bed. All of the volunteers in my immediate vicinity have had it, so I thought of it as inevitable, and you develop a resistance to the strain that you catch. You are still susceptible to other strains of the virus, and the consequences get more severe when as you collect more stamps on your “different strains of dengue” punch card, but my understanding is that you have to travel somewhere else to be exposed to it. I’m taking pills to prevent Malaria, so I’m not too concerned about that.
Being that I’ve made it this far, I no longer have any desire to catch dengue. Until the recent influx, I had developed an adequate mosquito management system in which I would leave the door to my bathroom open during the day. The mosquitoes would fly in, attracted to the darkness and slightly warmer temperature, and I would shut them in when I got home. Every now and then I would put on some music and slaughter them (think Willam Defoe investigating a crime scene in Boondock Saints), leaving their bodies sticking to the walls where the ants would clean them off. Symbiosis! It’s quite easy to slaughter mosquitoes in a 5’x5’ space.
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| Left Hand, Post Massacre |
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| Right Hand, Post Massacre |
Unfortunately, this is no longer an adequate solution. I have undertaken a project to mosquitoproof my apartment. The major problem area is the four inch gap between my wall and the roof. To close this gap I cut a mosquito net into strips, and attached them to a chord that goes over the beams, clipping the bottom of the net to the beam that runs along the top of the wall. Being woken up by high pitched buzzing three of the past four nights has also motivated me to finally put a mosquito net up over my bed.
The problem now is that when I got home at dusk yesterday, there were about 30 mosquitoes trapped in trying to leave my apartment.
I can't even imagine having those diseases to worry about. It wasn't until a few years ago that we even had to start worrying about the West Nile virus they carry. You make me glad that I don't have quite that many in my home at night. What kind of netting is best to keep the mosquitoes out? I'm trying to find a good Houston mosquito control company to get rid of the problem I have right now. Hopefully you were able to handle yours and not get infected.
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