A Tale Of Woe, Bob And His Mosquito Foe.

A David & Goliath story if ever there was one...

There is of course a downside to having a house rather close to a pond. Oh, when it's the season to be outside, the pesky buzz of mosquitoes or as they are called here, Gelsen, is omnipresent.

With the recent spat of hot weather ( in the mid to upper 30's ) it is necessary to air your house once in the morning and once in the evening. It's the only way to cool the house down. Opening doors or windows during the day, is for amateurs and brave ones.

We have a lot of windows but only a few are blessed with a mosquito netting. Opening these windows is a breeze! The ones without netting are a free invite to let the enemy into our house. Compared to our mouse invasion during autumn, the mosquito pest is small fry. For me at least but it appears, that Bob emits an attractive scent for the little buzzers.

Lying in bed last night, luckily reading as we have a netted window in there, it didn't take long for Bob to start sprouting forth words that even a sailor would raise an eyebrow to. For some reason, the mozzies didn't take a liking to me and while my beloved was being attacked next to me, I could blithely read on in peace. The only buzz I got was from my Georgette Heyer novel.

Bzzzzzzz

" Jeez, can't you hear them? "
" Are you being attacked too? "

only made me say the wrong thing. Mentioning that he should lie still and let the mozzies only do a fly-by, just made him more irate.

When I next happened to glance up from my novel, I saw that Bob had lit a candle. No, not for romantic reasons but one of those candles that promise to disperse insects...well, they saw us coming, because a very harassed Bob tossed and turned all night trying to catch a mosquito in the act and also because he worried that the candle might burn more than its wick.

Bob has got all day today to devise a plan of counter action. Somehow I fear that I might have to sleep next to a very stinky Bob...eh, you know, the scent of anti-mosquito spray is far from nice!

Who would have thought that such a tiny thing and its buzzing sound could strike fear into a grown man...

Biggi