I hate the little buggers. I spray so much Baygon that my ex neighbors used to ask me not to spray as they thought it would kill their dogs. Plus I always have Off Deep Woods (smuggled in from the US) in my car. This is the best repellant available. A friend of mine had the "Dengue Hemorrhagic" version a couple of years ago. This is the type that is deadly and causes bleeding through the mucus membranes. She luckily survived. This is spread by the aedes aegypti species of mosquito so if you see one of these guys, get away quickly.
OUCH! Pretty good with the snappy caption, Steve! Don't you hate them? I guess it's the idea that mosquitoes are going after my blood, not to mention that they can carry diseases, that makes me want to do battle with them. I'm sure people have noticed from your picture that this baby is not the one that is so commonplace. I've been looking closely at the ones that are, and they seem to me to be more likely to be Culex quinquefasciatus. Small and dark, they lack the banding on the legs that aedes aegypti have, which is beautifully revealed in Steve's closeup. (By the way, Steve, how did you get your wife to sit still long enough for you to take that shot, poor thing!) Culex are not the ones to carry either dengue, or malaria. That's the good news; but, as is often the case, a little bad news must come with it. They are the carriers of West Nile Encephalitis- West Nile Fever as it's commonly called- potentially fatal, and capable of leaving nasty neurological symptoms in its wake, if you don't die. West Nile Encephalitis has been present here on the peninsula, since 2002. Still yet another reason not to let mosquitoes feed, freely, on you, at any time.
Culex quinquefasciatus Steve, if you can get your wife to hold still just one more time, how 'bout one of your nice closeups, this time of Culex quinquefasciatus, so we can see if that's what's been buggin' us around here. Tell her, "This is the last one, promise."
Here's Culex quinquefasciatus, By the way, that's not my wifes skin. I Know she is Mexican but she's not that hairy.
NOT TRUE, WIFE SHOT Thanks, Steve, for that nice mug shot of Culex quinquefasciatus, on the previous page. Steve wrote: My mistake. Your first shot, of the aedes, was made on an almost hairless arm. This second one looks more like it might have been made on my arm. Still, it's a good shot. This looks a lot more like our culprit, all right, but I'm not sure it's dark enough. The thing I've noticed about these around here, aside from the absence of banding, and their dark coloration, is that they sit very low, and flat on the skin, relative to others, which appear to stand up taller- perhaps on longer legs. I started to get interested in mosquitoes, after coming to Cancun, when I began to think seriously about why they seemed to prefer some people over others, and some body parts, over others. Mosquitoes not only vary in appearance, size and distribution in the world, but they vary in behavior, as well, making them extremely interesting to learn more about. It turns out the Culex quinquefasciatus has an extremely strong tendency to bite below the knees; and, even more so, near and on the feet, with only 7% of their bites being on other body parts, in experiments with human subjects, who lie naked, waiting to be bitten (I hope they're well paid). I killed one of the "seven percenters," just the other day, when he tried to bite me on the arm. They are also, like aedes aegypti, very particular about when they bite, feeding only when there is light available, natural or artificial: sounds like this one may have just a little trouble with night navigation: many of the others sure don't though, do they. At least this one won't keep you awake at night!
CAN WE HAVE ANOTHER? Now, Steve, if you wanted to make it a trifecta, you could give us one of anopheles albimanus. Now that I know your wife doesn't have to pose for these shots, I don't feel so bad, asking.
If Cancun Centro has a mosquito problem then I'll bet half of it is because the Parque Kabah is a mosquito nest. We went there yesterday and it's pretty much a lake all through the woods there. I can't imagine how many mosquitoes will be hatched there just this week, from this rain.
MOSQUITO NEST!? Looks like you're going to be in for it, RG! Better start taking those garlic tablets, now! (I'd think about giving some to your husband, too, to keep peace in the household.) [Actually, I tried those once, when I was in Moscow. Didn't work worth a damn, at least not on Moscow mosquitoes, who seemed to have a sort of Italian taste preference, in my experience. V.]
