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When Mosquitoes Attack
I had my first encounter with Canadian mosquitoes a couple of days ago when we were walking on a trail along the river that was leading to St. Jacobs. Apparently, Canadian mosquitoes are greenish (unless my eyes were playing tricks on me) and they attack you in big groups. They don’t play one-on-one, for sure. Their bites would feel itchy but won’t give you bumps. Now Indonesian mosquitoes are black and they attack individually. Their bites are really itchy and will leave you with tiny bumps that will usually disappear the next day.
Anyway, the mosquito attack (ambush?) forced us to turn direction back to Troy’s car. Instead of walking the trail to St. Jacobs, we went there by car instead, which was fine by me. :) Once we got to St. Jacobs, we took a walk around the town (village?) for a bit and then we had ice-cream. Mmmm, ice-cream! We ate the ice-cream while sitting by the murky river, watching the wild animals doing, uh, whatever they were doing.
None of the mosquitoes that bit us was a carrier of the West Nile virus, thankfully. At least I think so. Hrm. Now I wonder how long the incubation period for the West Nile virus is. Let’s see… Usually 3 to 14 days. I guess we’re not safe yet. Oh well.
Quacks on When Mosquitoes Attack
i don’t think those were mosquitos
The Canuck said they were. :)
I haven’t heard anything about the West Nile virus here yet. Keeping my fingers crossed. After the year I’ve had, with 5 months in bed, it would be just my luck!
-H
They were mosquitoes and for some reason they were swarming. They usually don’t swarm but for some strange reason they were that night. They also tend to leave bumps. Though for some reason they didn’t that night. Though maybe we just thought we were getting bitten but in actuality were not.
As for West Nile. I wouldn’t worry about it. We are outside of the age ranges that would be likely to die from it. Besides I think it’s only 1% of people who end up with anything serious from this virus. Someone was telling me the other day that it could be kind of like chicken pox. Once you’ve had it you won’t get it again. I don’t know this for sure though.
I didn’t know that West Nile Virus had spread to Canada. You have to be careful if that’s the case.
I live in Alberta, and I got a flyer in the mail from Alberta Health about this that gave the following website for more info:
http://FightTheBite.info
I wouldn’t worry either, just take proper precautions.
My daughter got a few bites and the infected area swell to a size of a palm, and it was hard too. Really need to stay way from bushes this summer… Hey, want to check out my blog and leave some comments?
Strange. I seem to associate mosquitoes with tropical countries and Canada is the last place I would expect to have mosquitoes.
Do the Canadians use mosquito coils as repellents? What kind of precautions do they take? Any cases of diseases such as dengue or malaria?
Oh we have lots of mosquitos in canada. During the summer anyway. It does get quite warm and humid here in the summer. That and the fact that we have a lot of swampy areas with tonnes of standing water for them to breed in.
And yes, sometimes we do use mosquito coils, though I personally have never found much to be effective.
I get the little bumps from mosquitos, but they usually only last 10-20 minutes as long as I don’t scratch at them.
The only real disease I’ve heard of from the canadian bloodsuckers is West Nile, I don’t recall there being another scare. Which is no where near a guarantee that there has never been one.
{This discussion is closed. Thanks to all who participated.}
