that little voice
Mosquitos have a love affair with me.
I do not willingly participate in this one-way drama, but my disinterest does not deter these pesky insects from thinking parts of my body are divinely delicious.
During the summer I bath in bug repellent, in an effort to dampen the attraction that the smell of me awakens in the flying monsters. But it wears off quickly and I have to continually douse myself in the anti-aphrodisiac lotion.
So, I decided to do a bit of research looking for predators I could employ to rid my home of the blood-sucking creatures.
What I found is a variety of animals, insects and fish eager to make a meal of mosquitos and their larvae.
For instance, I did not know that turtles love this delicacy, especially the red-eared slider turtle. Now, if you think I would recognize a red-eared slider turtle vs. some other slow-moving animal, I would guess you don’t know me well, or at all.
Perhaps you could keep your red-eared slider in your back yard snatching up their favorite dinner along with anything green you might have blooming.
Other mosquito grabbers are bats, although they are considered a bit dangerous themselves. I think I won’t recruit any bats for my patio mosquito guard.
From my reading, it appears gold fish and other types of swimmers dine on mosquitos and their larvae, as do dragon flies. Both of those predators I could see on my patio nibbling up as many unborn mosquitos as possible. But the fish with the biggest appetite for the buzzing critters is the “mosquitofish”.
“The mosquitofish is a very small silver fish that is common throughout the United States, as well as Central America. They feed on the various larvae of amphibians, but mostly those of mosquitos,” according to Timothy Collins of the DailyPest.
Of course, he wrote that back in January 2020 before Covid was talked about, so the dreaded disease might have changed appetites of some of these predators. Who knows?
And his report says the most vicious slayer of the household vampire that stings and sucks ones’ blood is another mosquito: the Toxorhynchites rutilus septentrionalis.
Not only can I not spell this insect’s name, I wouldn’t even attempt to pronounce it. It doesn’t attack humans, but they want the blood the other mosquitos have collected from unsuspecting victims.
No question I am not an expert on such things, but I wouldn’t recognize one type of mosquito from another, so I might be swatting and killing the wrong ones.
I currently am hunting for a turtle with red ears sliding along the ground to put in my patio and a large aquarium with dozens of goldfish and mosquitofish waiting on the mosquitoes to deposit unborn biters on the inviting water.
Summer is a trying time for those of us hounded by plasma enthusiasts. I don’t mind being pursued, but I’m really against uninvited blood loving stalkers.