The Other White Meat

I was out after dusk last night with my husband trying to get some gardening done. Every mosquito from the county must have smelled my sweet sweet blood, because they all suddenly decended at once, and I literally ran inside shrieking. I HATE mosquitoes. I know you think you hate them, but I really really hate them. You see, I'm allergic to them, or hypersensitive or something, so when they bite me I swell up like a balloon. When I was younger, I remember getting bitten on the back of my hand. Within a few hours my hand had swollen to 3 times it's normal size. Another time I went to summer camp and failed to cover my entire body with the sleeping bag. When I woke up in the morning I was clean from the eyes down, but my forehead and scalp were disfigured beyond recognition.

It's bad enough that I have a bad reaction to mosquito bites, but they also seem to PREFER me over other people. When our parents would take us camping as kids, I would always be swarmed and eaten alive, with the rest of my family only sustaining a few bites here and there. I had so many bad experiences with mosquitoes as a child, that nowadays if I ever hear any kind of buzzing sound near my ear I turn into a flailing, screaming mess.

Anyway, here are a few fun mosquito facts found thanks to Google. I did not make these up:

- Mosquitos are attracted to carbon dioxide and pheromones, they also prefer children to adults, and blondes over brunettes.

- They can "smell" you from 100 feet away using their chemical sensors.

- There are over 2,700 species of mosquitoes in the world.


Let's all say it together, now: Ewwwwwwww!