My neighbor Kathy came by and asked if I had seen the Orange County Register article about the return of the Aedes mosquitoes. I hadn’t, but we both laughed as she read the headline. Don’t remember it exactly now, but it was something to the tune of “Mosquitoes Suck.”
Seems like we’re in for a heck of a time. The article said that because of all the rain we got in Southern California, our mosquito season could be worse than usual.
During the initial onslaught of these little buggers in 2019, Kathy and I were both bitten up quite a bit. Kathy, being a nurse, knew how to take care of her bites. I, on the other hand, did not, and ended up going to a dermatologist, who gave me a shot of low-dose steroids in each of the sites where I was bitten – 19 of them.
Turns out that the Aedes mosquitoes, aka the ankle-biting mosquitoes, had a preference for Type O blood. Type O was sort of like Champagne for them, and Type A or B or AB was probably like having a light beer.
When I first heard of the Aedes mosquitoes on the radio, I thought they were saying “’80s mosquitoes.” So, thoughts of mosquitoes dressed in little Madonna-style bustiers and fishnet stockings and lace fingerless gloves flashed through my brain … which might have been more understandable if I had been drinking tequila instead of ginger ale. (I still adamantly insist that the ’80s was Madonna’s best era.)
Anyhoo, I was miserable. I even called the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District for information that might help me. The gal I spoke with was really nice and understanding. She even agreed that the ’80s was Madonna’s best era. And we both liked Madonna’s movie “Desperately Seeking Susan.”
But I digress. So anyway, back at the ranch as they say, in 2019 …
I was reading the Letters to the Editor in our wonderful Globe when, lo and behold, I spotted a letter from Phil Silverman. After reading about his experience with these vicious little mosquitoes, I realized that Phil and I were compadres in misery.
Recently, I reminisced with Phil and his wife about our battle against these vicious little buggers. And Phil told me that he had 35 bites to my paltry little 19 back then.
Phil said this is like a sequel to a “Die Hard” movie. Except this is the “Revenge of the Ankle-biters” and “Revenge of the Ankle-biters 2.” But sadly, very sadly, this is no movie.
Diane Duray is a Laguna Woods Village resident. Contact her at dduray47@gmail.com.
