A giant mosquito

3/4″. This guys (gals) are no joke!

Today, I was enjoying the benefits of my new weapon against the invasion of mosquitoes…bug repellant!  As I walked through pedestrian hostile streets, I ventured through knee high grass (they apparently mowed so it’s no longer waist high) confidently knowing that all sorts of bugs and jitters would flee at my approach.  Confident, that is until a horse fly starting attacking me.  It dove towards my face as I performed Matrix-like moves in an effort to avoid contact with such a pain inducing creature. After some fast pace walking and some pretty awesome (if I say so myself) acrobatic ninja like maneuvering, I came to a place where I finally had rest from the fly’s relentless attack…or so I thought.  As I approached the door of my office, I heard that familiar “buzz” sound (which sounded more like a propeller plane than a bug’s buzz) and then suddenly stop.  I knew the fly had landed on me, so I cautiously looked to my right shoulder and there, staring at me, seemingly mocking me was the horribly gruesome…mosquito?! Wait, what?  It was about the size of a horse fly, and yet it wasn’t a horse fly, it was the most scary looking, hugest mosquito I have ever seen in my life, and it was on MY shoulder! I swapped at it before it could stick its sucking long mouth into my skin.  I was bewildered since it landed on a place I could not reach, I could only scare it away enough to hopefully give me enough time to open the door and avoid an itchy session (all along wondering, “how much more painful a bite from this guy would be”?).  In typical horror movie fashion, I could not get the key in the hole as I frantically expected at any moment to feel the ardent pain of its bite.  But alas! The Mosquito did a fatal error.  She (female mosquitoes are the only ones that suck blood) landed on the white painted door, giving me a perfect visual and a flat surface to attack and overcome her (muahahahahaha….ehem).  I grabbed my Florida gator hat and with awesome speed and precision (ok it wasn’t that awesome). I swung at it, hitting it, and mortally injuring her.  Oh the pleasure I got at her demise was…well, none eventful, but at least she was not going to be bugging me anymore…pun completely intended. I looked at my prize kill (who was now on the floor) and was amazed at the sheer size.  It was obviously a mosquito, but her size just made her look like something else.  I don’t know what, but anything other than a mosquito. I had to record this so that when I told this story I would have evidence.  Therefore, I grabbed a piece of paper, placed her still twitching body on it and placed her on my table, where I then proceeded to measure her with a ruler. And what do you know; this mosquito’s size was ¾ of an inch!  The largest size recorded for a mosquito is 1 ½ inches!  Come to find out, the name of my mosquito assailant is Psorophora Ciliata  and it’s the largest blood sucking mosquito in the US (check out the link for more info).. Moreover, according to Purdue University, the Psorophora is a disease carrying mosquito (some mosquito species are not, but the Psorophora is not one of them).

Moral of this story?  Beware of the giant mosquitoes…beware.

Juan Castillo Jr.