I’m not a really big fan of sleeping under a mosquito net. Oh I know of their utility, and the serious threat in many places by zoonotic diseases, but seriously if it wasn’t important I wouldn’t do it travelling in tropics. I just find them hot and stuffy, and lets face it, the tropics are hot enough for a guy from the Arctic.
Travelling through the alto plano of Ecuador one didn’t need to worry about mosquitoes, it was too great an elevation for them. But when we went of Vilcabamba I discovered that, at 1600 or so metres, it was low enough that there were mosquitos. I also discovered that mosquitoes there were not malarial.
Now for those of you who are used to North American mosquitoes you may not be aware that tropical mosquitoes evolved with different prey and are different in many ways. Those of us who have laid awake in a tent or room while a lone mosquito buzzes around unseen might be surprised to learn that tropical mosquitoes are silent. There isn’t much need to be sneaky when you evolved with animals such as moose as your prey, but tropical mammals such as monkeys are generally more dexterous so a stealthy approach was required.
After my first night in the cabin at Vilcabamba I discovered that there was a hole in my mosquito net. I awoke with several mosquito bites on my arms and face. The bites weren’t itchy to me, and the redness disappeared after a couple of hours, so I figured that seeing I didn’t have to worry about malaria I could put up with a few non-itchy disappearing mosquito bites and the minuscule loss of blood, and decided to forgo sleeping under the net the next night.
The following morning one side of my face and one arm were covered in bites but again no real adverse effects were noted and I figured it was better than the net, so I slept the third night with out the net.
The next morning I awoke up early as usual and sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I stretched and then scratched my beard. When I did I found something large… hard… and with legs residing in my beard. That the previous night we sat around talking about scorpions did not help the instant rise of panic in me and as I felt the legs begin to kick against being grabbed I flung what ever it was across the cabin. It bounced off the wall and hit the floor, righted itself and I got my first calm look at my guest, a large (very large) beetle. My breathing quickly returned to normal and I got out and had a close look at the beetle as he made his way across the floor and out the door.
I slept under the net the next night.