Mosquito Blitzkrieg

Have you ever been overwhelmed by a mosquito attack?

One evening on a recent camping trip, mosquitoes tormented me as I cut up pallets for our blazing campfire.

Mosquitoes think my wife is super-sweet (they are right), and they go after her with a vengeance. I had her go inside our camper for fear that I would lose her to a voracious swarm of mosquitoes that might collaborate to carry her off for a sumptuous sanguinary feast.

The mosquitoes even bit our little dog Kepler. At only 15 lbs, he’s definitely small enough for a swarm to carry him off, so he had to go inside the camper too.

I wanted to enjoy the campfire a little longer, so I lashed myself to the picnic table to prevent my being airlifted away by ravenous swarms of blood-thirsty mosquitoes.

Sometimes the Mosquito is called the “Insect from Hell.” It’s hard to argue with this description when a swarm is after your blood.

A mosquito will suck three times its weight in blood. It would take 1,200,000 mosquito bites to suck all the blood from your body.

A Canadian experiment with people who bared arms, legs, and torsos in swarms of newly hatched mosquitoes reported 9,000 bites per person per minute. At this rate you would lose half your blood in two hours.

Komarno, Manitoba in Canada proudly claims to be the “Mosquito Capital of the World.” They warn visitors to beware the giant mosquitoes which can carry off small children.

Komarno, which means mosquito in Ukrainian, boasts the world’s largest mosquito statue, pictured here. Constructed in 1984, the steel mosquito has a 15-foot wingspan.

Over 3500 mosquito species exist with more being found all the time. The U.S. hosts 176 species of mosquitoes.

New Jersey is home to 63 mosquito species. In the 1880s, mosquitoes originating in New Jersey’s marshes plagued New York, earning New Jersey the sobriquet The Mosquito State.

Texas is the state with the most mosquito species with 85, and West Virginia has the fewest with 26. Florida has 80, New York 70, Michigan 60, and California 53.

Despite showing no mercy as I killed many of the little divebombers, some still got through my slapping hands and flailing arms to bite me.

For most species, mosquito lifespans range from a week to several months. However, most of those that tried to bite me experienced shorter than normal lifespans.

I wondered, “How did Adam deal with mosquitoes, especially since at first he wore no protective clothing?” (More on Mosquitoes in the Garden of Eden? coming later.)

Questions to Ponder

1. How big would a mosquito have to be to carry off a 20-lb toddler?
2. Why would anyone volunteer for the mega-bite Canadian experiment?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below.

Soli Deo Gloria.

This is the first article in a series on Mosquitoes.
Read the sequels:
Mosquito: World’s Deadliest Creature
Mosquito Mechanics
Were Mosquitoes in the Garden of Eden?

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
Wednesday August 12, 2015 A.D.

But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind? (Job 12:7-10)