Our friend Drew from SV Tie Fighter after a particularly brutal bout with the bugs in Mexico (San Blas, I believe?). Drew is over at www.disengage.ca – check it out!
The arrival of rainy season is accompanied by the proliferation of bugs…especially the biting variety. We’re up the Rio San Pedro right now, enjoying the calm outside of Puerto Mutis, awaiting the arrival of our friend Michael. I could stay here a lot longer if it wasn’t for the bugs.
My alarm clock this morning was dozens of pin prick bites on any area of my bare body that did not happen to be covered by the sheets. Jejenes, no-see-ums or biting midges, as we know them in the US, are flocking to the boat from the nearby mangroves. Nearly invisible clouds of invaders ready to devour us. And devour is not an understatement. We are on the menu this morning and we are apparently very delicious.
We try to keep them out with netting, but neither our mosquito net nor our screens present much of a challenge for most of these tiny creatures. They fly right up to the net, land with ease, step gingerly through the gaping hole and make a bee line for my hands or my head or Jeff’s rump, which are the only things exposed right now (the jejenes compel me to dress conservatively…Jeff not so much). Though I have watched the idiotic few that just can’t seem to figure out, despite a half an hour of trying, how to maneuver their way through the net. I laugh at them while their more capable counterparts are gnawing on my flesh. Their genes likely won’t make an appearance in the next batch of microscopic carnivores.
I wasn’t going to write about jejenes this morning…but really, it’s all I’m thinking about. Well, jejenes and coffee. Those jejenes are standing between me and my coffee because however bad I think it is in here, it’s 10-20 times worse outside (where we boil our water). I see the cloud, hovering beyond the net…as if they’ve taken a number for breakfast and are just waiting for it to be called. “Number 456.” “Oh shucks, I think that’s you Bob. I should have gotten up earlier this morning. Let me know if she’s worth the wait.” If I go outside, it will be equivalent to room service…and I outright refuse to play into their little game. So coffee will wait until the sun is a bit higher in the sky and the jejenes start returning to wherever it is they go when they’re not sating their hunger.
These little creatures have mighty powerful jaws, and unlike mosquitos they don’t mess around with anesthetic and needles, they just dig right in. Some people can’t feel them…some people don’t develop little red bumps at the scene of the crime. I feel it and I generally have reminders of their visit. If productivity is my superpower, Jejenes are my cryptonite. They have the power to drive me absolutely batshit crazy. Not cute crazy. Scary crazy. They could literally make me lose my mind. It’s a good thing we can haul anchor and seek out jejene free zones.
Did you know?
- There are over 4,000(!) species of biting midges in the Ceratopogonidae family.
- Males and female jejenes feed on nectar, but the females require blood for their eggs to mature.
- Some females are ectoparasites, feeding on other larger insects like katydids and dragonflies (nothing is exempt!)
- Some species can lay up to 450 eggs per batch and as many as seven batches in a lifespan. Eggs typically hatch within two to 10 days of being laid; time to hatch is dependent on the species and temperatures.
- Coastal areas provide primary habitat for biting midges…awesome.
- Jejenes have been known to transmit filarial worms to humans, transmit bluetongue virus and African Horsesickness virus to ruminants.
- Jejenes are important pollinators of plants, like cacao in Central America (you know, the stuff they use to make chocolate :).
- Jejenes are an important food source for birds, bads and large insects.
You know, I just really can’t get behind bugs that bite me, no matter how interesting their physiology and phenology might be, or how important they might be to the ecosystem. Jejenes just outright suck. They suck as much as mosquitos suck (figuratively…and maybe actually literally too…except for the fact that they bite…semantics). The word jejenes is just too cute for them. They don’t deserve a cute name. Noseeums is also an awfully cute name that does not come close to imparting their evilness. I propose we call them h#!!-h#!!-no’s, which is latin for die a million deaths.
Man, I could really use some coffee right now.
Sources:
- http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/aquatic/biting_midges.htm
- https://www.inbio.ac.cr/papers/Ceratopogonidae/biting2.htm
Elaine calls them "teeth with wings". They so LOVE me, not so much for E, lucky her.
LOL – teeth with wings. That is the most perfect description.
Do you know the secret deterrent yet? One of the soldiers at the San Blas naval base tipped me off to it, and it basically saved our sanity. Burn dried coconut husk, they hate the smoke – and it works as well or better than those mosquito coils! It doesn’t smell as toxic either… we used a steel cookie pan and some husk. Just light it up, blow out the flames and it smoulders for ages.