Mosquitoes

Our house had a shaft that allowed fresh air to come from the rooftop down to our bedroom (which was windowless). The big problem was that it also allowed in zillions of mosquitoes. Our room had white-washed walls, so each little beastie that I squished was very obvious, and no carcasses were more obvious that those that had already had a meal on us!! We found we could close the tube up, so we did. While that did reduced the problem, it far from prevented their entry.

Later we discovered a nifty device, a plugin, that somehow keeps the bloodsuckers away. We assume that a chemical is released. If the situation had not been so bad, we would not have used them. My husband and daughter had horrible reactions to the mozzie venom. They had white welts the size of a quarter, which didn't reduce in size for days. I had hydrocortisone cream along (a great solution to skeeter bites) and due to our extensive experience with mosquitoes at home, I know to put it on before the bite is scratched. But either the cream was old or the venom was resistant, as it didn't help.

Two things about the mosquitoes baffled us:

• Mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water. Greece is so dry. So how can they multiply????
• why don't they use screens on the doors and windows in Greece????

The house had very modern windows that could open two different ways, but they didn't they have screens!! It was fairly warm when we were there and we would have liked to have opened windows and doors for fresh air, but the mozzies immediately came speeding in, looking for a meal.

We had experienced them in smaller numbers near Nafplion. In our bedroom there was a skylight that opened. Since the room was upstairs and quite warm, we naturally opened the skylight at night. Our sensible Canadian mosquitoes live about 4' above the ground, but apparently not the Greek ones. In they came.

Screens should be a great help!!!

However, since these beasties are smaller than our own common variety (found in even greater numbers at home), one possible problem with screens is that the size of the openings in the typical screen is too large to keep them out. Our son who lives in Baku, Azerbaijan, said he has watched one of those smaller mosquitoes squeeze its way through a screen. Not sure what is stranger about that, the fact that the mozzie can do that off or that my son spent the time watching it!!

So invent a smaller grid. Surely this can't be too difficult!!