The mosquito (the camper's nemesis) changed history

[Kurt (Indiana)]

According to this "Yahoo" site, the mosquito played a part in our country's history. Mad Jack's Louisiana is part of the story as well as those west of the Mississippi.
http://dir.yahoo.com/thespark/858/the-mighty-mosquito

[madjack]

...all I can say about the skeeters down here is that the turkeys are very, very afraid...oh yeah and keep small children and pets indoors at dusk if you ever want to see 'em again
madjack

[Dean Williams]

Hate Skeeters. That's all I got to say about that.

[Kurt (Indiana)]

...all I can say about the skeeters down here is that the turkeys are very, very afraid...

I guess Napoleon was on the ball. When malaria was a real problem, he did what he thought was right; Sell .. Sell..

If only he knew what he was doing.

[madjack]

...I have seen skeeters so thick down here that they actually choked out and extinguished a dual mantle Coleman lantern, while out night fishing...luckily they were mostly males...either that or they really liked those lanterns.....
madjack

[angib]

As a kid, my family was camping just outside Venice (Italy, of course, not CA!) and I got bitten. Unable to sleep from the itching, I tried to count the bites, but each time lost count somewhere past 60! I eventually slept, which is more than my parents did, as during the night I became delirious so they had to stay up watching me. In the morning, I was right as rain!

Andrew

[Juneaudave]

We have skeeter-ball fights up here...that's where you run your forefinger down your arm and wad up a mess of skeeters into a ball...then flick it at the guy next to you!!!

[Dewayne_Mellen]

On the Discovery / Learning channel I was watching a show one time that mentioned mosquito storms in Texas. They would occur when there was a drought followed by a massive amount of rain such as a hurricane. Several days after that all of the mosquito eggs would hatch. They said that there had been cases of cows dieing from loss of blood.

[nubwon]

Be afraid..................Be veeeeeery veeeeeery afraid!!!!

[Laredo]

Back in '79 one night in August at Barksdale (Bossier City LA) 8th AF's transient maintenance squadron accidentally pumped 35 gallons of JP4 into a mosquito -- the E-3 on the fuel truck mistook it for a Bell JetRanger their shop had been asked to refuel en route to air-evac an oil rig in the path of a tropical storm ...

[Larry Messaros]

The Elementary school that was near our house had the mosquito as their mascot

[Ira]

God bless the dragonfly.

I've told this story before, but what the hell.

When I had my property next to Big Cypress Preserve, I would come home to Coral Springs some nights and I was bitten so bad that my face would actually deform. I looked like Charles Laugton Jr. in The Hunchback of Note Dame.

However, those times when I exited the highway to go to my property, and I saw the dragonflies, I knew everything would be cool.

Also, I had one of these electronic mosquito repellers awhile (before I lost it), and I'm telling oyu, I think the thing actually worked. I don't know how well it would work in swarm conditions, but otherwise, I'm not kidding--it DID have an effect.

Basically, it emits a sound, silent to us, that's supposed to replicate the pitch of a dragonfly's flapping wings. And a mosquito, I guess, is genetically programmed to avoid it.

And here's a cool little story about man's folly trying to combat the mosquito--the Bat Tower on Sugarloaf Key. There's a picture of it here too:

http://www.florida-keys-pages.com/interest.htm

[bsandey]

The first couple of years after we moved into our house, we had a ton of mosquitoes around our house. Then one year, hardly any. Later that year, I discovered a bat in the cedar shingles in the front of the house. Since then, we've just let her live there, and have not had any problems with mosquitoes since (been about 4 years now).

[Ira]

Bill, I even put up Purple Martin houses, on the HOPE that some of the birds would make their way down to Florida.

Some people swear that those birds eat tons of mosquitoes, but some autopsies have shown that they don't.

[engled]

Back in '79 one night in August at Barksdale (Bossier City LA) 8th AF's transient maintenance squadron accidentally pumped 35 gallons of JP4 into a mosquito -- the E-3 on the fuel truck mistook it for a Bell JetRanger their shop had been asked to refuel en route to air-evac an oil rig in the path of a tropical storm ...

That is funny! I was at Barksdale for 4 years. The only place I have seen bigger skeeters was in Nederland Texas (south west), I hope I never have to go back.