Mosquito netting is the tried and true method in the tropics. We use it for our one-year-old son and it works great. I don’t get the benefit of a mosquito net though because my (Taiwanese) wife finds it inconvenient.
That’s not a problem for her because mosquitos here seem to prefer white meat so I’m built-in mosquito bait for her.
That’s okay. We white boys are used to getting it in the neck these days.
I’m wrestling with myself now though as to whether or not to fire off something sarcastic about this notion of animal rights being stretched so far as to include blood-sucking parasites.
Is that rational? Doesn’t it have ramifications for the rest of us if others are tolerating private little zoos of parasitic creatures on their premises?
I suppose the reason I’m taking this so personally is because I’ve had a few run-ins with the “Meat Is Murder” animal rights activists in the past. To them I’m little more than a serial killer because I enjoy a good juicy hamburger now and then. Whenever I used to pass someone with a “Meat Is Murder” bumper sticker on their car I used to yell, “V8 Juice is genocide!” out my window as I passed them.
So, commune with those blood-sucking little bastards if you must, Mr. Mosquito Lover, but remember, the only way you’ll get my hamburgers out of my hands is when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers.
I wasn’t deriding. I was being Wolf. Hey, you must admit that if you are not a Jain, then having a guilty conscience about killing mosquitoes deserves to be the butt of jokes.
I don’t think Taiwan has malaria mossies YET, but some people do come up in great big itchy lumps when they get bitten. They’re painful, and can become infected. Has anyone ever been bitten on the eyelid and had it puff up so much you can barely see out of it? I have, and you try riding a motorbike through Taibei rush hour after a sleepless night feeding the insects. I’d rather be an awake, alert murderer any day. Mosquitos are a health hazard and should be treated with maximum aggression.
I’m not advocating spraying DDT everywhere, but killing something - the specific one that is invading your space - that is a hazard to you is the logical solution. Refusing to do so for half-baked idealistic reasons is not smart.
I put spiders outside, leave the windows open for bees and other insects to escape, and generally try to avoid killing for its own sake. I respect that principle, but you have to be realistic about it. And if you’re really honest with yourself, anything you do that denies the mossies a meal or the chance to reproduce is still harming them.
[quote=“stragbasher”]…some people do come up in great big itchy lumps when they get bitten. They’re painful, and can become infected. Has anyone ever been bitten on the eyelid and had it puff up so much you can barely see out of it? I have, and you try riding a motorbike through Taibei rush hour after a sleepless night feeding the insects. I’d rather be an awake, alert murderer any day. Mosquitos are a health hazard and should be treated with maximum aggression.
I’m not advocating spraying DDT everywhere, but killing something - the specific one that is invading your space - that is a hazard to you is the logical solution. Refusing to do so for half-baked idealistic reasons is not smart.
I put spiders outside, leave the windows open for bees and other insects to escape, and generally try to avoid killing for its own sake. I respect that principle, but you have to be realistic about it. And if you’re really honest with yourself, anything you do that denies the mossies a meal or the chance to reproduce is still harming them.[/quote]For the last time
a) I avoid getting bitten (if you go to a barbeque at my friend’s house in the hills, you will certainly recieve painful and long-lasting bites from a particular form of little black mosquito unless you use potent insect repellent)
b) If insects were causing a significant problem and there were no other alternative, I would consider killing them, and indeed have done so in the past
c) Re. your last paragraph, I have already been ‘honest with myself’ that things we do inevitably involve suffering for other beings and that we can just try to minimise this - it seems we are basically in agreement on this. My reasons for acting as I do are not half-baked, because I have thought about them thoroughly, but you are correct to say that they are idealistic, because I try to act in accord with ideals that I have. I draw a distinction between deliberate killing and accidental death.
d) Anyone else can do as they like; I am not judging anyone, just responding to people’s comments
e) Wolf, even were I a Jain you would still be at liberty to make jokes about any aspect of my behaviour. My only request is that they be funny.
My experience is quite the opposite. Often when I’ve been trekking out in the wilds with a Taiwanese girl, she’s got covered in mosquito bites while I haven’t been touched at all.
The reason why some people get bitten a hell of a lot more than others is that blood-sucking female mosquitoes are attracted by certain chemicals in human sweat, and they will target people whose sweat contains these chemicals. Astonishingly, their remarkably sensitive olfactory receptors can detect these from kilometres away!
It’s still not known precisely which chemicals attract the mosquitoes (out of the 340~350 different aromatic compounds in human sweat), but researchers are hard at work on unraveling this mystery.
For those who are worried about being infected with dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, or other mosquito-borne diseases endemic to Taiwan, you may find it reassuring to know that only four to six dozen of the world’s 2,700 mosquito species (i.e., around 2%) transmit disease.
[quote=“stragbasher”]I don’t think Taiwan has malaria mossies YET, but some people do come up in great big itchy lumps when they get bitten. They’re painful, and can become infected. Has anyone ever been bitten on the eyelid and had it puff up so much you can barely see out of it? I have, and you try riding a motorbike through Taibei rush hour after a sleepless night feeding the insects. I’d rather be an awake, alert murderer any day. Mosquitos are a health hazard and should be treated with maximum aggression.
[/quote]
LOL! The mosquito bite on the eyelid happened to me twice! I get bit in the most unusual places and my bites don’t leave tiny red spots but huge throbbing red splotches! I usually get them on my legs and some end up scarring. Sometimes these bites can keep me scratching and hurting (due to the throbbing scratched bites) that I can’t sleep at night. Can’t say I have any sympathy for the blood-suckers.
Why is it that some people- especially children are more prone to bites? I get bit all the time while my boyfriend doesn’t. My hypothesis is higher than normal skin temperature or skin pH. Anybody have any facts on this?
Same here, two big suckers in the bedroom, filled with blood, and the strange thing is that I didn’t have any sign of being bitten, neither has my wife.
Anyway, the wall is splashed with blood now, need to paint it over I guess.
This probably sounds a bit silly but does anyone think Taiwanese mosquitoes are a bit stupid and very slow compared to others. I find them so easy to kill here. I can squash them with my slippers without any difficulty whatsover. However, back in Melbourne Australia during the summer months I have alot more trouble trying to kill them. They seem much faster and also much more intelligent. Last month when I was in Melbourne at one stage I had about 4 or 5 mossies in my room at about 2am when I was just trying to get to sleep. I could hear them flying and swarming around my face. When I switched the light on the little f…s were nowhere to be seen. They are much better at hiding in Melbourne and seem quicker in the air. They seem slow and dopey here but I am certainly not complaining about that. So I guess I prefer the Taiwanese mosquito to the Australian variety although I don’t really fancy catching some awful disease from the local ones. I think this has to be one of the silliest posts I have ever written. Erick
What I can’t understand is after they feed they stay in the vicinity where they are easily killed. What is the evolutionary benefit of this trait?
The other weird trait is that some of them make more of a buzzy noise while others are pretty silent. You would think that all of them would be safer keeping silent but that is not the case.
The only time I find they are dopey like that is after a feed.
If you look at the mosquito closely you will see some of them have pretty amazing colours and stripes. That’s pretty interesting to me cos it means they can see very well close up.
I think one is called the tiger mosquito or something, that’s the one that transmits dengue.
Taiwan used to have malaria but it was eradicated 50-100 years ago I guess.
I too have noticed that some species of mosquito in the forest areas give a much worse reaction.
me and the missus slaughtered 42 mossies last night…checking with guiness but i think its a record for a rooftop apt. in taipei…place is a bit of a mess, blood everywhere but we emerged victorious at the end of the night…prolly time to get the man in to fix the nets ( xiuli boli…xiuli shachuang)
I started taking medication to lower cholesterol and after that the mosquitoes don’t seem to like to bite me. They don’t like my wife, but they like my kids. I use the plug in things that get hot and emit some kind of chemical. Seems to keep them away pretty well.
yes, the city bugs don’t have much evolutionary gumph. they’re slow and dopey, but probably cuz they have little to worry about. whereas the forests ones around the hills are smarter, faster, bigger, and their bites are worse. at least IME
I’ve found the “zapper rackets” to be the best weapon to kill mosquitos. But the only problem is that after I go and get the racket and come back, the mosquito has usually disappeared! So when I see a mosquito in the house, I usually ask my wife to give me the racket while I watch the mosquito.
By the way, “bug lights” are totally useless against mosquitos. Mosquitos aren’t attracted to light, so the only way a bug light can kill a mosquito is if a mosquito just happens to fly right into the bug light by accident. But moths are attracted to light (but they can only see light which is blue, purple, or ultraviolet), so whenever you hear a bug light zapping something, it’s almost always a moth.
The point is that your body does that without your brain telling it to. It’s just how your body works. The point is to minimize the amount of killing of sentient creatures in this world.