The ongoing education continues
The mosquito bite situation had been bad enough in the first week that antihistamines had become part of the evening routine – but night nine was different. Bearable enough to skip them. Small victory.
There was still a mosquito. There is always a mosquito somewhere.
This one had apparently decided that the rotating fan was an inconvenience rather than a deterrent, and was making repeated attempts to navigate around it with the kind of stubborn optimism you have to grudgingly respect. Batty was nearby – we’ve made a point of keeping one in every room, which we’d recommend to anyone – and after disappearing from sight for a bit, I spied the critter hanging upside down on the curtain next to me, which I have to admit felt unnecessarily theatrical. However, if you’ve ever seen a resting mosquito and just know its beady little eyes are staring at you, licking its metaphorical lips – you also know there’s only one way this is going to end. Me or her. Three or four satisfying crackles later, it was on the floor and I was announced the victor. We’re fairly sure it crackled more than usual. Our working theory is that a recently fed mosquito – full of someone’s blood (unfortunately usually mine) – will crackle more satisfyingly when Batty comes to visit. We haven’t verified this scientifically. Personally I don’t think that the trade-off is worth it – but it is a damn satisfying crackle.
Tip of the day, learned through experience: never underestimate the curtain. Mosquitoes love them – usually the bottom, or the window side where there’s darker areas for the monster to spring from. A quick brush of each curtain in the house with Batty, mostly in the evening before bed, takes a few seconds per curtain and has saved us more than once. Same goes for towels in the bathroom – remember mosquitoes love moist areas.
A Painful Memory
In a previous life we visited Coimbra in Portugal (love the country but that’s another story) and one evening, which will go down in the annals of burning painfulness, we were literally ravaged by one hungry mosquito. Now, dear reader, you are probably rolling your eyes thinking that I am exaggerating for effect – may I just tell you that that night, it felt like my hands were on fire. Living in the UK at the time where a mosquito bite was a rarity and almost worth retelling in the pub, this was a multitude of order worse – so bad I couldn’t sleep the whole night. Part pain, part knowing it was still out there. Watching.
My partner’s dad, knowing we had already been bothered by mosquitoes on the trip. Suggested the old trick of leaving a cup of water with a drop of washing up liquid around the house. Mosquitoes need to lay their eggs in water after filling up on blood and the washing up liquid breaks the water tension so when they land, they can’t rest on the water and fall through and drown. Usually something dying this way would sadden me. Not this time. So we did precisely that during the night when we couldn’t sleep.
Come morning, as if by a miracle, there was a dead mosquito half way down in the water, small stream of blood trickling out of her. Words cannot express how joyful this made me.
Anyways back to the experiment – having just moved in and not having enough glasses to sacrifice for this experiment, we thought we would cut off the bottoms of a few of the dozens of plastic water bottles we had accumulated and retry the experiment. We had tried this in a few places after Coimbra as it does seem to have a very low hit rate but we thought there was no real harm in trying.
Results: nothing. Two days of nothing. We’d also read that containers with darker inner surfaces apparently work better – something about the visual contrast attracting them or perhaps evil finding comfort in the dark – but we didn’t have anything suitable to hand. Further experimentation pending.
It’s worth noting that the traps aren’t entirely selective. Other insects have found their way in too, which gives us pause. The goal is mosquito control, not a general insect casualty situation. We’re still debating whether to keep them running.
Another day, another issue
We noticed the pool had turned green.
It emerged that when the pool maintenance team had come to change the filter sand, they’d turned off the pump – and hadn’t turned it back on. Three days of a stationary pool in Thai heat will do what Thai heat tends to do. Our first pool, and we’d assumed the pump was already on a timer as the landlord had mentioned. It was not on a timer. We know this now.
The pool cleaners came back that morning, said nothing about the green situation – which took a certain confidence – and used what remained of our chlorine as an emergency measure. The landlord stepped in to sort the rest. It was caught early enough that no lasting damage was done, but it was a sharp reminder that a pool in this climate requires more active attention than we’d appreciated.
We were hoping the dragonfly might come back and appreciate the ambiance. It did not.
This week brought mixed results on the water trap front. A casualty of war was found – but closer inspection suggested it was a drain fly rather than a mosquito. The debate about whether to keep the traps running continues.
Later that evening, a mosquito was spotted resting on the outside of the curtain – which was new. The outside of the curtain felt bold. Almost confrontational. Not one to back down from a challenge, I reached for Batty. Several crackles later the mosquito was located on the floor shortly afterwards. After our recent victories we decided to keep score… and we’re ahead.
The guppy pond project is underway. Bamboo sticks are on their way. Updates to follow.