The Tyranny of the Mosquito Net



Ready to move in for the night

 Five things I dislike about mosquito nets:
- the slight sense of claustrophobia
 - having to untuck and re-tuck when you need to get out
- holes
- having the netting touch any part of your body
- those pesky mosquitoes that sneak in while you're tucking the net in around your mattress

I'm safely (I hope!) ensconced my mosquito net, along with my netbook computer, Safaricom modem, phone, glasses, notebook and pen. I just could not seem to get the bednet fastened in straight, even though I was trying to match the seams to the corners of my mattress.

I'm afraid I've become more complacent than I should about bednets. For the 2008 trip, I made my own net as well as one for Liz, hung them on the line, and sprayed them with a highly toxic mosquito repellent. We were careful to get them set up early and get into bed as soon as we could, making sure to collect our essential items ahead of time. Late night trips to the bathroom were postponed till morning whenever possible, to avoid being bitten. When such a trip had to be made, the exit tunnel was as narrow as possible and was immediately blocked so none of the enemy could invade.

In 2010, I brought my own net again, but most of the places I stayed had their own nets. I stayed up later, and the tunnels into and out of bed were definitely larger than the year before. I'd wait till the next day to let the hostel staff know that my net had a hole.

This trip, I'm getting into bed anywhere from 9:30 to 11:30, and right now I'm looking at holes of varying sizes that I haven't mentioned to anyone. It's often an entire side and a half of netting that gets pulled out for entrances and exits, and I don't think twice about getting up in the middle of the night if I have/want to.

As much as I dislike them, though, I'll continue to use them, and take an anti-malarial, and hope that any stray mosquitoes I encounter are a non-malarial species or male (only the females can spread malaria).

How many places are there where you hope your bites (and believe me, I'm covered) are from ants or spiders?