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gordonzola on request.
I lived around the corner of Haight and Webster for approximately my first five years in San Francisco. I have tons of, uh, picturesque neighborhood stories. Here's one of the more unusual ones.
One summer, we had an inexplicable infestation of giant black mosquitos.
When I say giant, I mean it. Back in the Midwest, where I come from, mosquitos are gray and finely constructed, all legs and proboscis. They have a high, irritating whine. And, as per legend, they swarm everywhere, all summer, leaving everyone with dozens of itchy bites all over their legs and arms.
These mosquitos were different. For one, they were black. For another, they were not spindly like the mosquitos I was used to, but compact of body -- and big. They thrummed like big jet engines compared to those wimpy biplane Midwest mosquitos.
Worst of all, unlike Midwestern mosquitos, the black mosquitos of death liked the way I taste.
Oh, and our apartment had no screens on the windows. Who needs screens? This is California!
Whenever I mentioned the black mosquitos of death to other people in the city, they looked at me like I was hallucinating. California doesn't suffer from a mosquito problem. I must have been mistaken.
But no. It turns out I was experiencing an extremely localized mosquito infestation. Possibly limited to my block. But I'm not the only one who noticed. Some vigilante put together a mosquito control flyer and stuffed it into the mail slot of every single house on my block. It was filled with tips like, find and eliminate any stagnant water around your building where the mosquitos might breed. It was, alas, unsigned. I still wonder about the identity of our mosquito control person, but I bless their foresight.
Eventually, the mosquitos went away -- maybe the flyers worked, maybe the weather changed. Except, of course, for this summer, when suddenly there are mosquitos everywhere, and everyone's paranoid about West Nile. For me, there's just a little touch of deja vu in all of this.
gordonzola on request.I lived around the corner of Haight and Webster for approximately my first five years in San Francisco. I have tons of, uh, picturesque neighborhood stories. Here's one of the more unusual ones.
One summer, we had an inexplicable infestation of giant black mosquitos.
When I say giant, I mean it. Back in the Midwest, where I come from, mosquitos are gray and finely constructed, all legs and proboscis. They have a high, irritating whine. And, as per legend, they swarm everywhere, all summer, leaving everyone with dozens of itchy bites all over their legs and arms.
These mosquitos were different. For one, they were black. For another, they were not spindly like the mosquitos I was used to, but compact of body -- and big. They thrummed like big jet engines compared to those wimpy biplane Midwest mosquitos.
Worst of all, unlike Midwestern mosquitos, the black mosquitos of death liked the way I taste.
Oh, and our apartment had no screens on the windows. Who needs screens? This is California!
Whenever I mentioned the black mosquitos of death to other people in the city, they looked at me like I was hallucinating. California doesn't suffer from a mosquito problem. I must have been mistaken.
But no. It turns out I was experiencing an extremely localized mosquito infestation. Possibly limited to my block. But I'm not the only one who noticed. Some vigilante put together a mosquito control flyer and stuffed it into the mail slot of every single house on my block. It was filled with tips like, find and eliminate any stagnant water around your building where the mosquitos might breed. It was, alas, unsigned. I still wonder about the identity of our mosquito control person, but I bless their foresight.
Eventually, the mosquitos went away -- maybe the flyers worked, maybe the weather changed. Except, of course, for this summer, when suddenly there are mosquitos everywhere, and everyone's paranoid about West Nile. For me, there's just a little touch of deja vu in all of this.
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Mosquito
Date: 2004-08-29 08:47 am (UTC)-nalo
Re: Mosquito
Date: 2004-08-29 10:33 am (UTC)My house is pretty mosquito free, and very close to haight and webster, but the area around work is really bad. my friends who live a block away had to put up mosquito netting. The revenge of Mission creek?
Re: Mosquito
Date: 2004-08-30 11:59 am (UTC)