I hope so too! According to the U.S Department of State there are 500million new malaria infections each year and 1million fatalaties each year - 2.5times the 11/09/2001 scale of deaths every day. Fortunately cigaratte smoke tends to keep them away (although not wasps for some reason)
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Trust you to get that one in, Gonzo! :-)
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I have been plagued with Mosquitos recently, the other morning I killed 5 of them before I left for work.
The electric zapper fly catcher seems to get some of them but they are still flying round in other parts of the house, I have never seen them before this year.
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When I was "east of Suez" as we say, we had been given all the required injections, had daily salt tablets, and daily Mepacrine tablets. You name it, we had it, but to no avail. Mary Mosquito won in the end together with her partner dysentry, so we suffered.
In 1951 I had to have emergency surgery at Preston Royal (eternal thanks to the ENT surgeons), but had such rotten blood that they virtually gave me an oil change for blood to achieve their ends. Many thanks due to the Blood Transfusion Services of that era, or I wouldn`t be here. It took 14 weeks to get reasonably fit and back to work. I hate mosquitoes, and I hate those big tropical bluebottle type flies, the things the glamorous stories of the Far East never tell you.
My sympathy to anyone plagued with mosquitoes, I hope they never get here.....
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In Virginia, we had a real mosquito problem, both the large version and what the locals called "No-see-ums", which were about the size of British midges, but with an itchy bite. All that part of the state where we lived was low-lying and marshy.
One of the squadrons at Langley Air Force base was one of those that sprayed Agent Orange in Vietnam. The local councils had an agreement with the Air Force for them to practice their low-level spraying skills by spraying Hampton and Newport News with insecticide.
Once a week during the bug season, we'd get a TV and radio bulletin to keep pets indoors between 04:00 and 05:30 the next morning. We were awakened the next morning by C123 airplanes coming over at very low level with the sprayers going.
In Anacortes, we have the regular type skeeters, but not in great numbers. We've had a lot of publicity about eliminating standing water wherever we can, to deny places for them to breed. The big health risk here is West Nile virus, as it's not hot enough for malaria. It has killed a lot of birds, mainly crows and there have been a couple of cases locally where horse have been infected. No people have got it in Western Washington yet.
Frank
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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Originally posted by LDunlop76
Trust you to get that one in, Gonzo! :-)
I think there is some truth in it though! I haven't been bitten for years. On a recent holiday to the lakes there were millions of the little bitey b*uggers. My girlfreind was bitten an awful lot. On the footpath at the north end of Coniston there always seems to be clouds of the things (drove through one cloud and it sounded like someone had thrown sand at the windscreen). My girlfreinds dad was bitten quite a few times on the ankle and the bites got infected (not through scratching though) and he now has some lovely scars.
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Here in New Hampshire we have seasons for each type of bug. The little biddy black ones come in the spring and can bite the heck out of you. Summer brings the Mosquito's which appear early morning or late afternoon. You cannot have a window open without a screen. They warn us not to have standing water and to put little pellets in our ponds. There is also something called 'Eastern equine' this mosquito attacks horses and animals. A girl from the area died last year from being bitten by one of these types. Trouble is you are a not aware of being bitten utill its almost too late. We also have horse fly's which are the worst they will chase you around the garden and not leave you alone and they give an awful bite. They also attack the dogs. They do spray if the area gets to infestated with them. We also have ticks which enbed themselves in your skin and you can end up with Lyme desease. My daughter was bitten by one luckly I saw the tell tale bulleye on her chest. She was only 8 but ended up on penicillin for 6weeks.
My Dad was in the first World War and he was in Palestine and Egypt. He ended up with maleria and suffered with it for many years.
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We used to spray standing water pools with some mixture of parafin and D.D.T. the idea that it covered the surface with a film and when the mossies came up to the surface, they could not get the proboscis through to breathe and were killed. Did it work????
We did patrols enforcing mosquito precautions at sunset, making sure that anyone out had sleeves down and buttoned, long trousers a must and closed at the ankles, neck button fastened, and cream applied to exposed skin. It was not very comfortable, but it had to be done every night without fail. I often wonder if this is still done.
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Avon 'Skin So Soft' keeps mosquitos away. Trouble is, when a bunch of us use the stuff at work we smell like a bunch of ***** oops, not PC.
John
