Posted by Rich on July 5, 2019, 7:18 pm, in reply to "Good point Rich..."
I've travelled in Thailand a fair bit usually going there once a year for the past 20 years and obviously there's always a big problem with mossies there. On one of the islands about 10 years back four or five friends caught dengue fever in the same week. But as the years have gone by, especially in the last eight or so years I've noticed that the mossie population is declining. The last two years have been the most noticeable in this regard and not just in one place but many - in fact everywhere we went on a two month trip both years running the mossie population was greatly reduced. Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, even in Laos. In Laos we travelled down the Mekong on an open boat for two days with a nightly stopover at three guesthouses on the way all of which were built on the river-bank overlooking the Mekong. The guest house we stayed in halfway down the river was an old style wooden place with no glass in the windows - just shutters - and no fan or aircon and only mossie nets for protection. We sat on the balcony in the evening with fantastic views of the river drinking local beer and Russian vodka and guess what - there were no mossies. Didn't even bother with the mossie nets or mos repellent - no mossies no need. No mosquitos anywhere on the river in two whole days and three nights. On the island down south we stayed in the same bungalow near the beach we always stay in. There are hardly any mossies now. It's most noticeable just after sunset when swarms of mossies used to arrive. Four years ago we bought one of those electric tennis racket type mos destroyers and in the hour after sunset we'd electrocute a hundred or two mossies. Now the numbers range from zero to ten max. If someone leaves their balcony light on there are now no mossies when there used to be loads attracted by the light. We don't even use the electrocuter any more. I don't think i had more than half a dozen bites in the whole two months. I reckon the mossie population has declined by 80-90% in two years. Crete is another place I'm familiar with and it's a similar situation there for 2-3 years now in three or more locations there. Very weird or am I missing something here? Did I kill them all with the tennis racket or what?