On Mangoes and Mosquitoes

On Mangoes and Mosquitoes

On Mangoes and Mosquitoes

(Dr P Vyasamoorthy)

(Originally published in July 2018)

Mangoes have gone but mosquitoes are in. This year the market was full of a variety of the king of fruits. But the quality was not up to the mark. Price varied from Rs 30 to about 150 per kg. I tried many varieties, not very satisfied, though.

Mosquitoes have arrived. I don’t like mosquitoes but they like me. I have lamented earlier at length about repellants, coils, skin creams, patches, incense sticks, liquid dispensers, mats and what not. Of all the anti-mosquito items I found citronella Agarbattis best. Each stick lasts for about 15-20 minutes but you can see these insects coming in swarms and dying like rain. It is effective if you use it in early hours of invasion. Even plain camphor pills kept on electric mats is fine. Plus you get pleasant aroma. A 2% mixture of camphor in coconut oil serves as pain reliever for humans and a repellent for mosquitoes.

There is a strong myth in Kenya and other countries that mangoes and mosquitoes are related. That if you eat mangoes mosquitoes will be attracted and their byte will lead to malaria. This is not true. I have seen flies coming out mango but not mosquito.

Body odor, sweat, body movement, body heat are all invitations to mosquito: they will come dancing from far off distances. Carbon dioxide is a good attractant; place a source of carbon dioxide in a place where you want these pests go to.  Placing clover stuck in lemon in corners of the room is a traditional solution, though cost wise it is not a wise choice.

I understand from my friend Dr Surendra Varma that male mosquitoes do not bite and only female ones prick us to suck blood. So, if you brought your palms together fast enough to catch them and succeeded in killing a mosquito, if your palms are stained with blood, it is a female one and if it died dry then you have harmed a harmless insect.  

I thought a poet is no poet if he has not written about moon. It appears to be true in the case of ubiquitous mosquito too. https://www.poetrysoup.com/poems/mosquito gives several hundreds of poems.  From the poems I gather that while in India we face mosquito menace during rainy season, westerners seem to suffer it in summer. Just a sample before I leave, a short one from Char Ron Smith:

I've been single too long

Obviously

That a mosquito is the only female

that wants to take a bite of me