MOSQUITO METER from the trail head at Congaree Swamp National Park in South Carolina
photo by Jonathan Schechter

Planet Earth is full of human-eating predators.  From the jungles, mountains, swamps and oceans of our history, to the darkest corners of our fearful and superstitious minds, wild beasts have been parts of our lives: Tigers in India with a taste for flesh. Bears with attitude and appetite.  Great white sharks. Alligators in southern swamps. Man-eating lions in Kenya and Uganda. Rabid wolves in old time Europe--and of course werewolves  in London at twilight.

Flesh-eating beasts have shared the landscape with Homosapiens since our earliest days. They have left lasting impressions on our behavior as they emerged like doom from dark forboding forests to hunt us, to  kill  us, and then to feast on our flesh.  And in many ways it was the very presence of these predators that made us truly human, and sent the message to be self-aware and wary,  for when confronted by  "Monsters of God"  we must adapt or die. That  is evolution. That is the way of nature.

A month of rains and sultry heat on the first day of June has set the stage for encounters with the most ferocious, ravenous and blood-thirsty monster of all: The mosquito!  These ravenous blood sipping young ladies - who won't take no for an answer - and can transmit West Nile Virus are about to emerge from puddles, ponds, pools, urban ditches and flooded farm fields. The only thing on their mind will be a meal of blood.  And if Oakland County had mosquito meters like those at Congaree Swamp National Park in the  bug rich midlands of South Carolina I would turn the dial to a notch above RUTHLESS for this coming weekend.

NOTE: If you like Earth's Almanac you should read Monsters of God by David Quammen. This brilliant writer blends science fact with high drama and leave you with haunting  images and a better understanding of species that like humans - - as entrees made easy.  His book,  the nudging of an ER nurse, and mosquito larvae wiggling by the hundreds in my bird bath inspired today's blog.