An Ancient Enemy

Last week, I killed a mosquito with gorgeous emerald green eyes in my girlfriend’s apartment. It was 3:30 in the morning, and for perhaps obvious reasons I did not think to photograph the remains. I did, however, think it would be the last of the pestilent blood-suckers for the year. But alas, no; last night, I killed another, in my own apartment. (My weapon of choice is the flipflop, usually near at hand at the end of my legs or parked by the bedside.) This one, as you can see, has black eyes. It is missing the rather fetching striped black and white legs which would identify it as the Asian tiger mosquito, the invasive species which gadflies me in the middle of the day in the Back 40 like the Eumenides did Orestes.

Note the needle-like mouth part, which is pointing up here; it’s a good 1/8th inch long. The better to jab you with, my dear. Personally, I’m one of those people who are pure mosquito bait; I’ve been bitten on every part of my body — including, ahem, that one – and I vote for the toes and knuckles of the fingers as the most tormenting.

While mosquitoes anesthetize us to their bites, which is why we rarely feel/find them on us, they can’t stop the high-pitched whine their wings make. That, at least, gives us a fighting change. Members of the order Diptera, the flies, they have one pair of wings which beat crazy fast.

Only the females of the 3,500+ species world-wide suck blood, which is to stimulate egg production. They are attracted to our exhalations of carbon dioxide, which is why they’re often found around our heads, announcing themselves to our ears. Superb vectors — malaria, West Nile, eastern equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, dengue fever, & dog heartworm, for instance, all love to catch a ride — I give them no quarter, no mercy.