Nick Allen, Insect Food!

I have been feasted upon my mosquitoes! I think they have been waiting for me! I am a great big, fat festive meal of a turkey to the mosquitoes of Australia! I was going to write a ‘What is the point of a mosquito?! ‘ entry for the blog and googled it only to find that despite being the World’s most deadly creature they are indeed vital to the flippin’ ecosystem. Fish, apparently, need them! If only we could get fish to eat plastic bottles, tyres and supermarket trolleys then we could wipe out mosquitoes for good.It’s only the females who feed on me apparently. They need my blood to help them with their egg production...so, thanks to me there are probably many more mosquitoes in the World.There are very few bits of me that have not been probed by their blood extractors. I am sure some have even probed me through my t shirt! They particularly find my left shoulder very tasty.I never hear their ‘whine’ nor feel them injecting their anti-coagulant into me but later when the lump appears, Boy! They don’t half itch!I have my ‘Stingose’, a clear gel that I smear on which turns white and powdery and relieves the itch. My legs are scratched to bits where I have tried but failed to resist this itchiness.My day has been very domestic. I felt like a pioneer woman of yesteryear doing three loads of washing, defrosting a freezer with just a towel (I am not sure pioneer women of yesteryear had freezers but that doesn't matter) and sweeping the man-cave. Dulcie was outside clearing some dead maidenhair fern. I had finished my chores so went to see what she was doing. I felt my leg stinging and was desperate to scratch it but resisted. Dulcie moved onto weeding the ‘Fernery’ and I went in search of ‘Stingose’ to relieve my leg.I bent down to rub some gel on the stinging part and a flippin’ ant ran off down my leg. It had been feeding on my wound...and without my permission! The stinging immediately stopped and I saved some 'Stingose'.Dulcie had had enough of weeding but I said I would finish it off for her if she wanted. She sat on the steps and supervised me. A little lizard popped out to watch me. I felt like holding out a toe for it to munch on!Being part of the food chain, as I am, it is important that I also feed to keep my strength up. We had some left over pasta for lunch and 2 Anzac biscuits. Perhaps mosquitoes like sugar?We spent the afternoon playing cards. I won two games of ‘knock poker’ and a game of euchre and then ‘let’ Dulcie win the last game.I asked her about the story of the little pig and the molasses. It was far better in my imagination than the real thing.It seems Oiris’s husband had a little pig that somehow ended up covered in molasses. Oiris took it in and bathed it and put it in the log basket beside the fire. Some woman came to visit and heard it snorting and thought Oiris had a child hidden away!Yes! I can understand now that you would get quite annoyed if you heard that story more than once!