The Final Death Toll…

…for Mosquito Massacre is as follows:

            I won with 484 and Ivan had a respectable 413.  Although I trust your math skills, I still want to spell out what our scores mean.  In 19 weeks, we killed 897 mosquitos.  That’s 47.2 per week, or 6.7 per day.  Scores were only valid if the mosquitos were killed inside our apartment.  Since we killed about half of the mosquitos spotted, a relatively accurate estimate of how many mosquitos plagued us inside our home in five months is 1,794.  Seriously.  One-thousand seven-hundred and ninety-four mosquitos, half of which were probably carrying dengue fever!

            That being said, I want to specify that our experience does not seem to be a usual issue.  Although our friends have had some problems with mosquitos, they’ve been nothing compared to our constant infestation.  So, some recommendations for incoming students (please take this advice for your own sanity!):

·         If your off-campus housing has dark floors (grey/black tiles), you will not be able to see the mosquitos.

·         If you look at an apartment and the walls have brown streaks on them, it’s dried blood from all the dead mosquitos and you should run away from that lease!

·         If your apartment doesn’t have very many windows and, therefore, scant natural light, the mosquitos are going to love it!

·         If your apartment doesn’t have very many windows, you won’t have any airflow and will get more mosquitos.

·         Insect repellant makes you taste bad, that’s all.  So maybe you won’t get bit as much, but you’ll still get bit.  (I don’t care for cooked green bell peppers, but I’ll eat them if I have to.)

·         Mosquitos can bite through most material, including denim.

·         Do you have screen doors?  Are your window screens intact?

·         If you look at an apartment and notice burned mosquito coils all over inside, that’s a bad sign.

When we were planning our move to Grenada, I remember reading about the mosquitos on various websites, including other SOs’ blogs, and thought to myself, “I can handle some mosquitos.  There’s no way they can be that bad.”  Please don’t make my mistake.  Prepare yourself for the Krav Maga champions of the vampiric insect world!  If you come to the island prepared, hopefully you won’t be surprised, and you can enjoy your time in your new beautiful, tropical home!