Sunday, July 18, 2010

Sharing a Slice of Life 'Bugs'

The prompt by Texasblu this week at Sharing a of Life was 'Bugs'.  Now, it would be easy enough to write about butterflies, cicadas, and grasshoppers.  They are pleasant, cute, and the cicadas sing the song of the South all summer long.
As usual, I can't stay with the fluff.  I have to focus on the bane of Southern life...The Mosquito. 
For our ancestors in Georgia, Alabama, and other swampy areas, the mosquito was the carrier of the parasite which caused ague  or Malaria.  The name brings thoughts of chills and fever.  The truth is; it was a horrible plight for the person who contacted the disease and lived.  They never knew when it would occur again. I actually had not really studied the disease until now.  As a nurse, we touched upon it but it is not considered a major disease in this time.
Today, mosquitoes are still around and and plaguing mankind.
I know because I buy repellents and all manner of insect killers.
My most memorable experience with mosquitoes was in the swampy land of Louisiana.  My father had taken me on a tour of a few states.  We went to New Orleans then left towards Galveston.  That night, we stopped at a road side park near the beach.  As the sun went down, the alligators began bellowing, and the mosquitoes came out.  I really think they were vampires or huge bats, but my dad said they were mosquitoes.  We quickly withdrew to the camper, to lie down to go to sleep. You could hear them humming as loud as cicadas.   It was hot, but I wrapped up in a blanket, because I could see they had a plan.  One mosquito would pull back the screen and the others would dive bomb down and carry us away.  If I was in a blanket, they couldn't reach me.  LOL   I just left a small breathing hole for my nose. My dad would say "Frances! Take that blanket off."  My reply, 'No way, you can't make me.' and I would pull it tighter around me.  I did survive the night, but those were the biggest mosquitoes I had ever seen.  Spare me. 
It is no wonder our ancestors were overcome by them. 
Lather me down with every home made repellent and then spray a circle around me with Deet spray.  ; )    They shall not overcome we modern day people.!

9 comments:

  1. Not a fan of mosquitoes because they come to me and not my husband! I wouldn't have thought an article about them would be fun reading, but yours was. Thanks.

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  2. Oh yuck! I can't stand mosquitos!

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  3. Everyyear at the garden center they would go after me. Huge welts all over my poor knees, that would stay that way for days. Then large bumps for months...

    I am NOT a fan of them.

    Jen

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  4. Agree....do not like them. The most pervasive bug in my life right now is in my computer ;-)

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  5. Thanks everyone. Lindalee, that is funny about the computer, but not funny too.
    Hope those bugs don't play havoc with your research life.

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  6. Hee-hee... no fluff from you, eh? I've never heard that story about you and Grandpa before - that's an awesome one!

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  7. Wonderful story-I used to cover up like that cause I was afraid somebody would break into the house-and you know of course they'd come in my room first : )

    Pap had malaria when he was stationed in South America-all these years later-it comes back-sometimes with a vengence-luckily the episodes only last over night. So weird how it lives in your body forever.

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  8. Tipper, from what I have read Malaria was awful to have to live with. The body is racked with such pain, it must take a terrible toll on the body systems, your poor Pap.
    Texasblu...that is the purpose of the posts so you can learn.

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  9. No wonder all of us are blanket hiders. We inherited it from you :P

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