Sometimes you do what you have to do

Normally, I try not to use harsh chemicals in or around my house. I can't stand the chemically smell floor cleaners give off (and you really do have to clean your floors frequently here since most of them are tile); I don't use pesticides or fertilizer on the plants, not even Frontline or any of that stuff on the dogs or cats (garlic works just fine, thank you!). Most chemicals give me a raging migraine; plus, I worry about the effect they have on a young child and the animals. So I try not to use them.

However. There comes a time in everyone's life when you have to take the bull by the horns, or the bull takes you. The bull, in this case, is mosquitoes. I've been battling mosquitoes in our master bedroom for the past couple of months. They have been getting worse and worse; mosquitoes in my wardrobe, mosquitoes in my hanging clothes, mosquitoes on the walls and ceiling and in the bathroom. Mosquitoes everywhere. The night before last, I killed something like 15 mosquitoes in the bathroom with an old Tico Times (hee hee... it's good for something!). I had been looking on the internet for information about how to get rid of mosquitoes naturally, and everything I've read was how to repel them, but damn it, I wanted to KILL them! There had to be a pool of standing water around here somewhere, but I'll be damned if either I or esposo could find it. So I'd had it. It was the last straw.

I should back up just a little and mention that I am allergic to mosquito bites. If I get bitten by a mosquito, my skin swells up and gets itchy to the point where I can't stand it, and usually I'm left with scars. Not nice. Plus, the damn things carry all sorts of diseases (hey, I took entomology in college, I know dengue isn't the only thing that's bad about mosquitoes!). If you don't already know this, the first time you get dengue, you get a terrible flu that can put you in the hospital; the second time, you have a likelihood of dying. Not that these were dengue mosquitoes, mind you, I think they were just the regular, little nasty ones. Anyway, the mosquitoes had to go.

I went to Wal-Mart/HiperMas yesterday to do a little shopping, and headed straight away to the mosquito-killing-sprays aisle. There actually is a company that makes a non-toxic fly killer (Fuera Moscas), but nothing of the sort for mosquitoes. So Baygon it was.

When I got home, I sprayed like a mad woman. I sprayed inside my wardrobe, my hanging clothes, at the ceiling, in the bathroom, all the while yelling, "Die, mosquitoes, die!" This morning? Not a single living mosquito to be found. Though I think we'll still have to find out where the water is collecting if we don't want them back.

P.S. You can also sleep with a fan towards you at night to keep the mosquitoes away, and if you can find eucalyptus oil, spray it around and it keeps them away also. Neither will kill mosquitoes, though.