Travelling 101; #5: Mosquitoes

Much like pigeons, who I wholeheartedly believe are the Microsoft of the animal world - no one likes them but they are bloody successful at what they do, mosquitoes inhabit pretty much every square inch of the places travellers like to roam. From Nicaragua to Nepal, Lima to Luang Prabang & Stockholm to Santiago you will find them, or rather they will find you.
And find you they do with amazing accuracy and speed. It seems like only seconds go by after you turn the lights off at night before that unmerciful and rage/fear-inducing ZzzzzzzzzzzZzzzzMzzzzMzzzzzzZZZZZZZZ sound approaches your ear. Then you do the extremely intelligent and wince provoking "slapping yourself on the side of the head" manouever. Then it is normally lights on and the mosquito hunt begins. But mosquitos are masters at hide and seek and there might have been 42 buzzing around your head, but by the time you reach the light switch they have all hidden under the bed, behind the light bulb or are pretending to be a speck of dust in the corner.

As if that sound weren't enough, it seems like nature gave the mosquito the ability to transmit EVERY FUCKING nasty disease known to mankind. Malaria, Dengue Fever, Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, West Nile Virus and if you are really lucky, the Rift Valley Fever too. It's fucking amazing that they can't transmit HIV or Rabies, but I'm sure the mosquito council are working on it.

I mean they are so nasty & evil, that if the mosquito were a human it would be Ghengis Khan, Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Bruce Lee, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris and George Bush rolled into one. In the Olympics of bad-ass animals the tiger, lion, polar bear and great white shark would all be cowering behing each other as the mosquito took the gold medal.
Thus your average traveller applies about 16 gallons of repellent each evening. This makes backpacker romance an unsavoury option, as any body part other than the mouth is going to taste like licking vinegar off a dead slug. Well, OK, not EVERY body part.