Diary of a Garden Mosquito

May 1: 
Happy May Day! I emerged from my pupa this morning and boy do I ever feel GREAT! Mom named me Female #135, or F135 for short. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the number 135, isn't that the perfect name?!! My mom is so sweet. And my brothers and sisters absolutely swarmed me when I came out. There is so much love here. 

May 2: 
I am suddenly incredibly hungry. Mom says I need to leave home and find some food. We had a really emotional parting, in which we touched antennae and said that we'd remember each other for our whole lives and she promised never to name another daughter F135. So I zoomed off with a tear in my compound eyes.

May 3: 
Almost got murdered today!!! I had found this luscious piece of skin to pierce and was pleasantly enjoying my meal, when WHAMMO! This giant beast came out of nowhere and just about turned me into skin-kill! I just about jumped out of my proboscis. It's a good thing I was able to disengage quickly and zoom away or there's no telling what that animal might have done to me and my beautiful body. 

May 4: 
I'm getting really hungry. There's so much deet around here, I can barely breathe! Everytime I get the scent of a juicy carbon-dioxide emitting human, I lose it in the confusion of the deet smell. It's horrendous. 

May 5: 
Heard through the fruit-vine that there's better pickings down south. More people + less deet = munchies for mama! I'm really feeling the itch to start a family, and I NEED some serious bloodmeal. 

May 7: 
Made it to Mexico! Or at least I think it's Mexico. The people here are much easier to spot. WAY less deet interfering with my radar. 

May 8: 
Found a free lunch today! This little human was just laying around, so I grabbed a few meals off of it. Such delicious blood. Think I might mate tomorrow, getting kind of excited, but my wings are a little sweaty and I have a weird feeling like something is walking around in my stomach. Or maybe that's from the little human I was feeding on today. It really did not look well, hope it didn't make me sick. 

May 9: 
Mating was fun. 

May 10: 
Found another little human to feed on. Boy are they easy targets - they don't hit back nearly as quick as the big ones do! 

May 12: 
Almost ready to lay my eggs! I'm going to be a mother!! I'M GOING TO BE A MOTHER!! So.excited. I hope I have a little female I can name F135 to carry on the name my mother gave me.

May 13: 
While I was flying around scoping out a good soggy spot to lay my eggs, I spotted the little human from 3 days ago, and now that one was just laying around too. So weird, cuz I didn't think fed THAT much on it. Hope it's ok. I would feel terrible if my little mosquitoes got sick, so I'm sure that little human's mother is feeling sad too. 

May 17: 
My eggs have hatched into the most ADORABLE larvae you have ever seen! Seriously, SO cute.

May 18: 
Went back to my little human lunch buddy today and couldn't reach it! There was this terrible screen in the way, and there was no way around it! The little human looked like he had a lot more energy too, so I was disgruntled to find my favourite picnic spot inaccessible. 

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So. Mosquitoes. I don't know anyone that likes them and I just read online (so it MUST be true) that lots of scientists think that it wouldn't even make a negative difference in the world if we eradicated them completely. Here in Canada, they're merely an annoyance, and rarely do they carry any major disease. I hate them when I go out gardening in the evenings, but really, I can avoid them just by going inside. We also have the option of about ten thousand various deet products to help confuse mosquitoes and keep them away from us. 

But in countries where it's warm year-round, mosquitoes can be deadly. Perhaps you recognized in the little story that our dear F135 had picked up malaria from one child and passed it onto another. This happens countless of times every day, all over the world. This disease is preventable and treatable, yet it kills 655 000 children every year. Yes, that's over half a million children. Children who are loved by their mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends, and communities. 

Why is that, you ask? Why can't they just slap on some deet or buy a mosquito net from the corner store? 

That, my friends is poverty. Unable to get the products you need to prevent your own children from getting and dying from diseases. Is your heart bleeding yet? Mine is! 

So here's what you can do. Go to Compassion Canada's Malarian Donation page, and make a donation. $5, $50, $500, whatever you can do. The money you donate goes towards Compassion's efforts to educate about, prevent, and treat this disease. 

And here's an unexpected benefit: female mosquitoes require blood for their eggs. Perhaps if we frustrate enough F135s by covering every child with a mosquito net, they'll die off without creating further generations! Slow extinction baby, slow extinction.

PS, if you do make a donation, would you pop back here an leave a comment so others can be encouraged? You don't need to share how much, just that you did it!