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It is mosquito season everywhere in the northern hemisphere, I think. After going from cold directly to hot, the weather here has settled down a bit and is now quite mild, even pleasant, most days. A few of our windows have retractable screens, which is nice, so we were able to enjoy the breezes and the fresh air for a while. It didn't take long however for the mosquitoes to decide that inside our house was the place to be. And they were showing up in droves. Vivi looked like a little leper, she had so many bites. We didn't get a decent night's sleep for about a week, they kept waking us up. Enter the bug zapper: Skeeters, say hello to my little friend! As a kid growing up I was always kind of creeped out by those purple bug lights but now I am of the mind that there is no more satisfying sound than that ZAP! of a mosquito defeated! No more chasing the little 6@$+@rds around the room, trying to clap them between your hands, only to miss and have them fly away in triumph. Simply wave the "EMT" in their vicinity and you are likely to catch them. Pop! And Heavens above, I do not know how we would have survived without this. At first we thought it must be holes in the screens. We couldn't see any but moving parts are always an opportunity for failure: they must be climbing in along the tracks or something, we thought. Then the heat returned and we had a day over 90 degrees with about 90% humidity. (We've started Plum Rain season but more on that later.) So we closed the windows and finally turned on the AC. And I swear, the next 2 nights were the worst of all. We've decided that there must be an air intake somewhere that doesn't have a necessary screen on it or something because it is as if we have a window wide open somewhere and they are just pouring in! Within the space of about an hour one evening we killed about 20 with our little friend. I am the Mosquito Hunter! Around dinner time we "sweep the perimeter". That lasts until about bedtime and then I sweep the bedrooms before I put the kids to bed and close their door. I also found some of those Raid diffusers where you insert the repellent soaked pad and it diffuses repellent into the air but I think it took a day or two for the repellent to saturate the rooms adequately because even with those in place there was always at least one or two-or 12 that would wake you up at night. One night Heinz and I laughed that we were going to have to sleep in shifts to protect each other because we had already killed about 8 but no matter how much we tried to hunt them all down, once we turned off the light and dropped off to sleep another one came buzzing along.
I truly think this could be the greatest invention ever. If it wasn't for the voltage conversion issues (and probably some anti-electronics import regulations), I would bring a suitcaseful home to my family and friends when we head Stateside next month. It must emit a sound because every time we press the activator Barney looks up, twitches his ears and he does that cute little head twist. It bothering him would be the only thing that might make me hesitate to use it but thankfully he doesn't seem to care. After that initial response he simply puts his head back down and goes back to sleep. My Mandarin instructor also has a maid service in which she teaches her Ayis a high level of English to work for Western families. She said one of them asked her what the English name was for this little beauty. She was surprised that we haven't got a word (other than "bug zapper"?) for it and so am I! Where have they been all my life? When we move home I will happily buy a converter specially for my little baby so that I can use it through the Indiana summer!
Wishing you all Mosquito free days~
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