News That Stays News

How I learned to stop worrying and love the mosquitoes June 26, 2013

June 5, 2013

What bothers me most about mosquitoes is their status as potential disease carriers. If they can give me dengue or malaria, then I need to keep being bitten to an absolute minimum, not just below the critical point at which I can’t work because I’m too busy swatting mosquitoes, scratching their bites, or trying to keep them out of my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

However, I had dinner with a lovely person who teaches the Organization for Tropical Studies Public Health course. She informed me that Palo Verde is free of both dengue and malaria. Apparently, there are about 30 species of mosquitoes here, and they are so successful that the mosquito that carries dengue can’t survive here. I don’t know if malaria is absent for the same reason, since it’s carried by another mosquito genus, but I suspect that’s probably the case. Who knew I’d be grateful Palo Verde has so many mosquitoes?