Singing Vampires
I woke up this morning somewhat a bit blant then became joyful when I remembered the victory I won in the fight I had the previous night with the singing vampires. I had decided to stay in Benin for a while before leaving for my home town and here in Benin, the temperature and those God forsaken vampires are making it a terrible decision. Going back to the fight, I had decided to go to bed around 10pm yesternight. After I had finished saying my prayers, I went to bed awaiting the sweet angel of dream to come take me on a journey. Lo and behold, they arrived! Their sucking pipes were long and well equipped to carry our their function. one of them sang past my ear and I thought it as nothing but a mere threat not until an inpatient one landed a stinging bite on my legs. The speed with which I got up was amazing. funny thing is I will search for them and would find them then lying down, they would appear out of their hissing places to continue their feasting on my blood getting up again, they would retreat back into the darkness.
Oh the frustration and swearing and pain! Then Nemesis caught on one of them. I don't know what that one was thinking or maybe it was so hungry and couldn't wait for me to lie down. It flew right in front of me with it wings moving very fast and efficiently creating a humming sound (which I have come to really hate ever since I was a kid). It landed on my thigh and was about digging with it palps and probocsis with 4 of it long extended legs resting on my surface of my body and 2 hanging the air. I was filled with rage and would have impulsively tried to kill it based on my annoyance. But then caution is Paramount so as not to make any rash movement thereby making this tiny devil escape. I gently raised up my hands and stationed it a 'kill order' position and await the strike command from my intellect. When I had seen that the idiot is feeling at home on my thigh, I then strike. Gbam!!! The creature didn't even know what hit it. With part of it body sticking to my thigh and palm, I, with a victorious smile beaming across my face stood up and wiped the corpses from my thigh and palm. I think its cohorts must have seen the horror movie played in front of them and decided to retreat for the night. For me, I was already thinking and strategizing how to effectively kill them or atleast sleep without getting bitten by those mosquitoes when a saviour emerged and removed the covering of darkness housing the mosquitoes and powered my medium Ox fan to blow and destabilize their flight in the air.
The gladness in me knew no bound. I happily jumped onto my bed and some few minutes I slept off. Though I wasn't planning on writing on my battle with mosquitoes but I had to.
Conclusion
Dealing with mosquitoes isn't the real problem per say, but it is the end result of their bite. Mosquitoes (the female anopheles in this case) are the vectors of the malaria parasite- Plasmodium viridis. This protozoans cause Malaria fever in man. The other virus that causes yellow fever is found in Aedes mosquitoes. This is also another kind of mosquito that caused Elephantiasis or filariasis. It is called Culex and is the vector of Wuchereria bancrofti.
Coming back to malaria, it is estimated that about 2.2 million Africans die per year due to malaria fever. Though it is reported that some have grow immune to the symptom and expression, it is still very active in the swampy and water abundant areas of Africa an Nigeria is not left out. Though the cases of deaths caused by malaria as reduced to an appreciable percentage in the urban and some rural areas of Nigeria, the sickness is still very much around .
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I hate mosquitoes as well. I always make sure I get mosquito raids and sprays at any sight of them in my room