Mosquito Apocalypse.

The other day I switched hotels – or let’s be realistic – hostels, and had the pleasure of sleeping in a non-airconditioned room, cooled down only by a fan. A relatively new construction with a stylish open bathroom and concrete floors, it was still one of these houses that you find quite a bit in Southeast Asia that make you want to face-palm yourselves.

Why?

So, while all windows and doors and whatnot are covered with these grids that are supposed to keep out mosquitoes (and probably do a decent job) – there is a giant gap between the roof and the walls of the house. Like a lower arms-length or something ridiculously large as that. So you might as well not even try with the grids. In fact, some of the mosquitoes that come in on top may actually fly out if you wouldn’t have these.

In any case, why in the world are people building stuff like that?

Does it have to do with ventilation? Letting air breeze through? Maybe.

All I can say is that mosquitoes are in fact smart enough to find the space above the wall that is open and then go in for the kill. I know, this may come as a surprise to you.

Add to this one of those mosquito nets that are bell shaped and on a short mattress. Add on top of that, room cleaning staff that managed to switch on the fan, and OPEN the mosquito net „door“ so as to effectively let mosquitoes in and become trapped inside  the mosquito net.

Combine all of these ingredients, add a few weird bugs in the bed and what you get is a pleasant night of ineffective bug hunting by the light of your iPhone and numerous bites the next morning. Speaking of the iPhone light, did you know that with the new iOS you can adjust the intensity of the iPhone light? You’re welcome.

That night and the last few weeks in Sri Lanka somehow put the thought in my mind that defending against mosquitoes feels akin to fighting the Zombie apocalypse. No matter what you do, they just keep on coming. Eventually, you cannot avoid being bitten…

This scene from the movie World War Z comes to mind: