So How's That Mosquito Plague Going?

We have had afternoon sprinkles, showers, downpours or blinding rainstorms every day for a month.  The ground is saturated.  Last week we were bombarded by mosquitoes.  I wrote about it.

The mosquitoes have gotten worse.  So much worse that they made Diario headlines three days in a row and the city is (supposedly) working the fumigation trucks around the clock.  Until I moved into this blast-into-the-past-time-machine called Mérida, I hadn't seen, heard or smelled a mosquito fog truck since I was a kid in Toledo in the 60's.  I haven't heard one this past week, but that doesn't mean it hasn't passed by. We can't hear street noise in the back bedoom.  I have no issue filling the air with certain toxic chemicals out of necessity. It's full of them already, so what's a little more toxicity if it avoids us all coming down with dengue?

The city also hired hundreds of men to assist with backpack fumigation.  The biggest worry now is August.  The officials are worried about an impending rise of dengue, and have seen 270 cases of hemorraghic cases thus far. As wet as our environment is, it's very difficult to avoid mosquito breeding areas.  At home, we actively seek potential breeding grounds, clear them - and then the bastards appear somewhere else.  My house is surrounded by three overgrown abandoned properties.  I wonder if there's any standing water or breeding grounds over there? 

The mosquitoes also got BIGGER.  There were two photos in the Diario of wasp-sized (ok, slight exaggeration) GIANT MOSQUITOS.  They are as big as flies at least. They're all over the peninsula.  Luckily the Jurassic Park Breed doesn't carry dengue- so they say.  There was no mention how their bites compare to the smaller striped anopheles bastards, that I constantly fight myself to NOT SCRATCH.  Hopefully the bigger the mossie doesn't mean a worse bite!

I HEAR the Zap Racquets in Mérida sold out and I KNOW there is NO REPELLENT anywhere...the shelves are all empty.  All that's left are coils and Baygon to spray entire rooms.  We "zen ourselves" into believing the Raid coils are lavender incense by necessity.  The racquet is the greatest, even if we do look like lunatics flinging them around the house and patio all the time. Playing air tennis.  You get to LOVE that zap sound!  The good news is the cats have become accustomed to our new bizarre behavior and don't freak out at the sight of our new weapons anymore.

 My house is reasonably waterproofed....compared to others I have seen....so I do continue to enjoy the afternoon rain squalls.  I spend a lot of time on the weather sites.  Whether we see as many tropical storms as were predicted this hurricane season remains to be seen, but it's safe to say so far we are having a much rainier rainy season than the past two summers.