Daily Archives: 20. November 2018

Mosquitos

In neotropical México, tropical Panama and Honduras, there have been identified 48 species of larval mosquitos: I live right in the middle. Many of my Honduran friends rarely worry about mosquito bites, telling me they don’t often get bitten. They add that I have sweet, gringo blood that attracts the flying menace. Daily, before I go out into the world, I apply bug repellent, Picaridin being my favorite. I also daily swallow a 100 mg Thiamine pill that has been proven by the U.S. Army to repel the deadly little bugs. The protective effects of Thiamine were discovered during WWII in the South Pacific. I still get bitten by mosquitos, however, but not as often. In the tropics, one lives with malaria, dengue fever, chikungunya, zika and who knows how many other parasites, winged and crawlers, bacteria, fungi, and viruses, that daily feed on the blood-filled human body. My chikungunya infection is approaching 6 weeks and I am almost well. But it is warm here; most days between 70 and 80 degrees F, which makes it preferable to the freezing wind, ice and snow in the Puget Sound area.