NO! THIS is not another episode of the Twilight movie nor the blooper “Vampire Sucks”. It has nothing to do also with the dogs, goats, chickens and ducks in one village which have been sucked and found dead. My story may sound like a Grade IV selection for noting details but this is very important.
This is about finding Lady Aedes aegypti landing on your smooth, flawless skin. The lady is in love with you because of your light perspiration and body odor (CO2). She develops extreme pleasure. With tender loving care, she sticks her sharp and thin proboscis. She starts sucking and because of her overwhelming love, she salivates for you. Her saliva is protein-loaded…meaning, with anticoagulants which prevent your blood from clotting. She sucks, and sucks, and sucks until she gains satisfaction. You become the unwilling donor of five microliters of your precious type O, A, or AB blood. Her full abdomen swells with your donation.
The bite deposits saliva in the wound. The protein evokes an immune system from your body. Lady Aeges aegypti leaves a souvenir by making the area around the bite swell and you feel the itch. The swell may vanish but the itch remains. Your Lady Aedes aegypti (AE) could be a carrier of a virus which could cause Dengue – viral flu to hemorrhagic fever.
AEs are also known as “flood water” mosquitoes because they need flooding to hatch their eggs. The abdomen has pointed tips sporting a yellow color but definitely not belonging to the Yellow Army. When they fly, they can cover a distance of 121 kilometers. Wow, that’s from Bacolod almost up to Candoni. They love to bite at dawn and in the early evening (crepuscular). By the way, only the ladies bite; the gentlemen mosquitoes are always gentle. They are just contented of sipping the nectar from the flowers.
The Lady AEs lay their eggs in clean water – gutter, tubular plant leaves, open cans, even in your flower vases inside your living room. Eggs to larva to pupa to flying adults. AEs may dwell even in the mansions of the rich and the famous but to be fair, they are also in squatters’ areas. It is suggested that you replace water in your containers at least once a week; and remove trash from around any standing water.
The abdomen for female AEs is specialized for food digestion and egg development. It expands when loaded with blood meal. The digested blood serves as a source of protein for the production of eggs, which gradually fill the abdomen. Adult flying mosquitoes make resting places in tunnels they construct below the roots of the grass. They do sex instinctively few days after emerging from the pupal stage. The males show off in swarms around dusk, and the females flirt into the swarms to find sex partners. It is some kind of group sex.
I am not a spokesman for the mosquitoes or their lawyer, but I want to make this observation. Mosquitoes used to stay in marshland and swamps only. But there came a time that we invaded their abode. We built our houses in their domain. We made our environment messy. Mosquitoes got no choice but to join our concrete jungle and adopt our greedy civilization.
The government should handle the proper rehabilitation of our rivers, swamps, streams and lakes. Let us fill these bodies of water with tilapia, goldfish and catfish. They eat the larva of mosquitoes. Teachers and parents should educate their children to leave alone garden spiders, frogs, dragonflies, lizards and snakes in their habitat. We make or unmake our environment. It becomes our obligation to dispose our garbage properly. If we just develop that habit of cleanliness and orderliness inside our house, outside our house, and in the community – there is no reason why mosquitoes should survive.
We have awakened the hibernating monsters. Our unhealthy practices make them mutants. We have no choice but to face them. Sleep inside your mosquito nets. Cover your windows and doors with screen. Organize a bayanihan movement for clean and green project in your community. Be a part of Dengue Alert program in your area. Support the Sandugo advocacy of your LGU. Be an active volunteer of Tipok Lamok Brigade.
We congratulate Mayor Oti Montelibano and the city officials for assigning three nurses round the clock at the Provincial Hospital to help all Silaynons who are victims of dengue – free medicine, free blood just in case transfusion is needed. The Silay City Health Office is also preparing a separate room for dengue patients who are under observation. Dr. Sabina Damaso, the city health officer, will soon have a dengue hotline. In case of extreme emergency, text Mayor Oti – 09209254518. We hope that other mayors will do the same in their areas. Remember, what sucks you, may kill you. Don’t be sucked!