The "Killer Skeeters" Story

It was an ordinary day. Carol legs are covered with mosquito bites. We have been on the island of St. Martin for two days now and the skeeters are flocking to her. Why? They love sweet things, and she falls into that category. Now, she’s not happy at all about it, since she had a hard time sleeping last night with all the scratching she had to do. Didn't bother me a bit, since I can sleep through anything! We had purchased some Off Deep Woods Sportsmen repellent, but didn’t realize that the mosquitoes were as bad as they were until after she was eaten alive. Me? I watch them land on me and take off just as fast. Must be the over abundance of testosterone in my body! Since we wanted to use our outdoor space at our villa, we went searching throughout the house for anything that would repel the buggers. Found the usual citronella candles which worked minimally, but the only thing that really worked was the Off! Oh yeah, the electronic racket really worked!! Carol found it in a cabinet and wasn’t sure what it was. Had a little black button on the side of it and when she pushed it in, a small red light lit on the handle. While she was holding the button in, she touched the “net” on the top of the racket and ...... WHAT A JOLT! “It’s electrified,” she said. She carried it with her for the next two weeks when we were at the villa. Swinging at the mosquitoes with the racket really worked. You could actually see the smoke coming off the racket and smell something cooking when she hit them with it. While we were in St. Martin, I read TravelTalkOnline (TTOL) ever evening to see what was going on on the island that we might be missinmg. TTOL is a travel forum where you can submit questions or help people out with answers and information. I started to read about quite a few people who had returned home and had symptoms of Dengue Fever. Dengue is a viral disease transmitted by the dengue mosquito and found in most tropical areas of the world. St. Martin would fall into that category. The disease may cause illness ranging from a mild fever to a severe, even fatal condition known as dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome. The more I read, the more it got my attention. I guess the FATAL part was what got my attention. Then I read about a vaccine that was developed in 2009 by France's Sanofi Pasteur and is getting very good results in a clinical study being made in Thailand. If all goes well, it will be released in the US in 2014. Great news for the deadly disease. As vacation went on, we searched for more ways to battle the potential killer skeeters. Found a website called “Snopes.com” that published a letter that said to use Listerine around the area where you are sitting and even on your body. Someone else wanted to know if Mint Listerine will do the same! Another letter said to use a dinner plate, fill with water and add a few drops of Joy dishwashing soap and that will attract them and they will fall in the water and drop dead. But then, as I read on, it said that these are urban legends and the only real repellent is DEET and will repel mosquitoes more effectively than solutions intended for completely different purposes. The Off! Deep Woods Sportsmen we brought with us had 25% DEET and was very effective. The smell was a bit overwhelming at times, but much better than having to battle a deadly disease. We were lucky, I guess. We survived and will know better on our next trip. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are the mosquito that is the carrier of the Dengue Fever, best thing we found to fight the skeeters, and Carol reading and playing "skeeter pong" at the same time.