Since coming to Taiwan, I've posted a few blogs about mosquitos, as have N and B. And it's not so much because I dislike mosquitos... it's because I despise them. Mosquitos are as menacing as insects come.

Flies don't bother me at all. Besides a little buzzing, most of the time, they're trying to get out of the room as evidenced by the way they continuously bang their faces into the window looking to get outside. Mosquitos are just the opposite. They come into your room looking for YOU. They follow you in the door unnoticed like unwanted pets and hang around on the wall just waiting for you to say goodnight.

Just watch the way they move. Flies zip around like they have somewhere to go, somewhere to be. Mosquitos float around in the air, not really looking to get from A to B, but scanning the grounds for something to suck on. Yeah, they suck. And for the record, it's only the female mosquitos that drink blood. And I'm not saying that has any relation to humans. Just a fact.

Everyone hates cockroaches, but a roach skittering across my bedroom floor (which, actually I haven't had yet) is less disturbing to me than knowing there's a mosquito in my room. Generally, my room is mosquito-free (and cockroach-free). But once recently, at around 4:30am, I heard the sound of a mosquito buzzing at my ear... and felt and itch on my face. That's one of the worse places to get a bite, because it's so darned visible. People either realize it's a mosquito bite or they think it's a zit -- either way, you lose. Regardless of the hour, if there's a mosquito in my sleeping quarters, it MUST die before I sleep - even if it takes me an hour to kill it and its comrades. Because I know that if it's there, 9 out of 10 times, it will get me (again).

I'm not violent and I'm no psycho, but I can tell you that it's extremely satisfying "clapping" a mosquito or smacking one against a window or wall in a bloody mess because I know it's my blood and it's just the sweet sight of revenge.

Even those big stupid mosquitos back in Vancouver that don't bite humans - they look like they're high off drugs, flapping around uncontrollably with wings maybe too small to carry their own body weight comfortably - they have to die.

Mosquitos. Die. Mosquitos.