Nasty little critters

I live in the desert. It is a fact I lament over from time to time in my yearnings for all things green. But, alas, it is what it is. There are benefits. Bugs for one.

Mosquitoes, to be more specific. Sure we get them. Not a ton, but some. Typically, they show up at the end of summer. August, September, after the monsoon storms have left a bit of stagnant water. I deal.

But let me tell you, lately I've been getting bit. And it's driving me freaking mad! Outside, inside, the bloodsuckers are after me. Not kidding here.

Now I know no one likes mosquitoes. I mean really, they're just plain disgusting. But long before the whole West Nile thing, I harbored a healthy fear of the buzzing buggers. As a child, I would wake in the night with one dive-bombing my head.

"MOM!!!"

I wouldn't allow either of us to return to our beds until the beast had come to a bloody end as a smear on the wall.

So imagine my disgust now, in freaking hot, dry June, to find myself the meal of mutant mosquitoes. Then, imagine my further disgust to find that I have been breeding the suckers.

I was under the (false) assumption that my fountain (being a running body of water) would not provide the kind of environment mosquitoes seek for their larvae. Well, it appears the top of said fountain is indeed still enough for reproduction.

Rest assured it got a healthy dose of bleach this morning. I hope no birds die in my efforts to eradicate the spawn. I don't need the guilt.

So there it is. My mosquito problem.

Now I hear that the housing decline will only make matters worse. Abandoned houses mean green pools. Lovely breeding grounds. Turns out others in the community are on top of it. They're dumping fish in the deserted pools, setting them to town on the squirming larvae. Now there's a cause I can get behind.

I may turn into a peeping Tom, bagful of fishies in hand. Watch out! I'm a mosquito mission.