UPDATE: MOSQUITOES ON THE HUNT

Deadly Mosquito-Borne Virus That Causes Brain Swelling Found In Florida 

Florida health officials are warning of an uptick in a mosquito-borne virus known as Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE). Several sentinel chickens tested positive for EEE, which can spread to humans via infected mosquitoes and cause brain infection and swelling, the Florida Department of Health in Orange County said in a Thursday statement. Sentinel chickens are fowl that are tested regularly for the West Nile virus and EEE. Their blood can show the presence of the diseases, but they don't suffer from the effects of the viruses. SEE UPDATE BELOW

read carefully

The Mosquitoes Are Coming for Us

They are our apex predator, the deadliest hunters of human beings on the planet. NYT

It has been one of the most aggravating sounds on earth for more than 100 million years — the humming buzz of a mosquito.

She gently lands on your ankle and inserts two serrated mandible cutting blades and saws into your skin, while two other retractors open a passage for the proboscis. With this straw she sucks your blood, while a sixth needle pumps in saliva that contains an anticoagulant that prevents that blood from clotting. This shortens her feeding time, lessening the likelihood that you splat her across your ankle.

NYT Armando Veve

The female mosquito needs your blood to grow her eggs. Please don’t feel singled out. She bites everyone. There is no truth to the myths that mosquitoes prefer women over men or blondes and redheads over those with darker hair. She does, however, play favorites. Type O blood seems to be the vintage of choice. Stinky feet emit a bacterium that woos famished females, as do perfumes. As a parting gift, she leaves behind an itchy bump (an allergic reaction to her saliva) and potentially something far worse: infection with one of several deadly diseases, including malaria, Zika, West Nile, dengue and yellow fever.

Mosquitoes are our apex predator, the deadliest hunter of human beings on the planet. A swarming army of 100 trillion or more mosquitoes patrols nearly every inch of the globe, killing about 700,000 people annually. Researchers suggest that mosquitoes may have killed nearly half of the 108 billion humans who have ever lived across our 200,000-year or more existence.

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Received an interesting email today. Of course be cognizant of the fact that it was written many years ago in answer to a question from a mispallel:

Q. What lesson should we learn from the mosquitoes and the diseases that they sometimes carry?

A. For us the lesson is as follows. Many people who should be sitting in the Yeshivos and the Batei Midrashim in the evenings and whenever they have spare time, are instead going out and wandering around in places they shouldn't be. Who said that you should be walking around in the parks and sitting on the stoops wasting your time?! Sunday, for instance. Sunday you have a day off. They could be sitting all day in the yeshiva. But no, instead they're wandering around all day in the fields, in the parks, and they're getting bit by mosquitoes.

Now a simple bite should be enough of a warning. But sometimes people ignore the simple warnings. And so they get sick. Some people, chas v'shalom, get lyme disease, from lying in the grass instead of sitting at the shtender. And it's a lesson they should make use of.

They should be at home making use of their lives when they have spare time. You wait a whole week for that one day off from your job. So you should be going to the yeshiva on Sunday. Don't most people have off on Sunday? So go to the yeshiva and take along breakfast and lunch and stay the whole day in the yeshiva. Stay there all day long and come home for supper. That's how you should live. Be a kollel man once a week. But no, you have to go wandering in the country, in the woods where the deer are spreading disease and there are ticks. Sometimes the blades of grass are poisoned with dangerous germs. And the children wander there too. So you want to wander in the woods and sit on the grass as if you forgot that you're in this world to accomplish something with your life?!

So, make sure to use the mosquitoes as a lesson, a reminder, of what you're here in this world for - that you're responsible for spending your leisure time in the best way possible.
TAPE # E-201 (September 1999)