I was in northern Minnesota for the past couple of days, and the mosquitoes there are ferocious. I don’t know if they even weigh a gram, but they sure pack a huge punch when they sink that proboscis into your skin. I’ve been bitten a million times in my life, but it never ceases to be a huge annoyance. What really bugs me is the fact that you can kill twenty or thirty of the little devils, and there are a hundred more lined up behind them to carry out the dirty work. The little vampires are completely suicidal because the second they bite, you swat, and they are not fast like flies, so most of the time you come away with crushed mosquito on your hand. Biting and sucking blood are their only aims, so even getting crushed is nothing for these little daredevils. Their only chance of success is getting in, biting, sucking, and leaving without getting caught. Except for that whiny sound they make when they aim for your head, they are very stealthy. In fact, a stealthy mosquito is a healthy mosquito. On more than one occasion I have caught a mosquito that stayed just a second too long at the well and come away with a spot of my own blood on my hand. Their success lies in their persistence. Even if twenty of their colleagues are killed trying to get blood, one of them will make it will the victim is distracted by the other twenty. This summer I even got bit on the palm of my hand, which makes scratching an odd subject to deal with. I have scratched more than one mosquito bit. The typical welt that shows up is very itchy–a reaction to the mosquito’s saliva, no doubt, and if you scratch too hard, they bleed. My arms still have a number of old scars from my childhood that started out as itchy mosquito bites. As to the use of mosquitoes, I can think of none. They are good bat fodder, and I know that the swallows near my house also eat them. The architecture of the mosquito is totally pragmatic: wings, proboscis, and legs. This forms a deadly, if not compact, insect that is both plentiful and deadly. The mosquitoes of Minnesota can carry a virus or two, but they are not as deadly as the mosquitoes in the rest of the world that spread malaria hither and yon. At one point on Wednesday night, I just gave up and went inside. I hunted down a half dozen interlopers that had made it inside, and I killed them all. I have no qualms about liquidating mosquitoes. Life is life, and then their are mosquitoes. Some people joke that the mosquitoes in Minnesota are so big that they might carry off a newborn child or puppy, but they are exaggerating: the mosquitoes are much bigger than that. The mosquito cannot be the state bird of Minnesota because it’s not a bird, but that’s the only reason. Next time you see a mosquito, kill it for me.