A mosquito made me deaf

Aren't mosquitoes just the worst? At about 4:30 this morning, I was rudely awaken by the high-pitched love call of a mosquito buzzing around my ear (this, despite the mosquito repellent I had smeared on myself). Waving it away, I tried to settle back to sleep – despite knowing that it would be back all too soon. And it was.

This time, I figured that I'd cleverly kill the bugger, thus affording myself a few more hours of untroubled sleep. My plan was flawless: I'd wait for the mosquito to home in on my ear and then I'd pounce. She (for all biting mosquitoes are apparently female) approached, and as her buzzing reached its zenith, I brought my palm down in a slap so resoundingly powerful that I knew she could never escape.

On second thoughts, slapping my own ear so hard might not have been the best plan. My hand's impact was immediately followed by a shrill ringing in my left ear which quickly died down to nothing. And since then, the hearing in my left ear has been extremely muffled.

In the end, I switched on the light and, after a somewhat ungainly naked dance around the room, I found her. Full of blood (Gemma and I had about five bites between us), she was carrying a heavy load and this made her easy to catch.

Of course, it would be foolish to suggest that mosquitoes are capable of strategising a new method of attack that finally found its success with myself. But is it not highly likely that mosquitoes have been buzzing near our ears for centuries, just waiting for someone to foolishly deafen himself, thus rendering him unable to detect the little bloodsuckers.

I shall send a copy of this blog post/paper to Nature.

What's that?!

July 9, 2008 | Home

Comments

3 Responses to “A mosquito made me deaf”

Erik R. on July 10th, 2008 12:24 am

Self-boxing as pest deterrent. Genius!

You should start a club, Mr. Durden.

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Ray on July 10th, 2008 12:42 am

Yet another reminder of the screen doors and window screens that I have been missing so much, lately.
Hope it gets better quickly.

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Tom on July 10th, 2008 9:01 am

Huh? What?

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