Comments on: Samal Island and the Mosquitoes

By: Color of My Dream | Journey to Samal

Color of My Dream | Journey to Samal — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:43:22 +0000

[...] it work once I’m there. I’m not talking about overcoming little minor nuisances like mosquitoes, heat/humidity, expectations of in-laws, language – you know all the things you read about [...]

By: Howard

Howard — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:55:14 +0000

Since I will be living in the Davao Area soon I was thinking if everyone sat plastic pans of fresh water in their yard and changed the water every few days then the M larva would hatch in those pans and die when poured out and refilled. Then the cycle is all over again. Let the bugs breed and hatch and then destroy them. It would cut the mosquito population down alot. Remember they come out in the day time. After I paid 15,000 peso 2 weeks ago for Dengue Hospital bill in Tagum City for relation, I say some action needs to be taken to lower the M population. It is really bad in the province maybe due to the rice fields water. But then it just takes ONE bite to get Dengue. In the other North province of Mindanao near rice farms Dengue is bad north of Davao City and north of Tagum City. All i heard from my wife in Davao was ” I want to go back to the province north of Tagum City I miss my pig ” Then I let her go and 2 days later the neighbor died of Dengue and I hear ” Get me out of here Husband, me no want be province no more ” So Dengue kind of sucks big. I wonder if the pigs get dengue? I have to study more M control Ideas. Its sort of the thing I do.

By: Randy C

Randy C — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:38:39 +0000

Hi Mike – sounds like you have some experience with this subject. I’ll have to see if we can round up some “Skin So Soft” for our next trip.

Had to look up what a mosquito shirt was. The hooded one reminds me of a bee keeper’s outfit. Looks like there are some that are basically long sleeve shirts that are treated with repellant. also.

Hadn’t heard of Fansidar, either. Did a quick search and see that it’s used for Malaria more often than not. Can have some serious side effects, too. It sounded like it was possibly available in the Philippines.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:28:51 +0000

My wife & I find that Avon’s “skin so soft” works well – an old Canadian tree planter trick – if you don’t mind the greasy feeling. We usually bring a couple of bottles with us, which last a long time. This time, I’m bringing some serious DEET, which can not be in direct contact with the skin & eats everything, but works better than anything else. As well, mosquito shirts help for the evening bonfires. My brother-in-law was hit with dengue fever & my wife gave him some fansidar – made in India – which put him “back to rights” within 24 hours. I bought it in Taiwan, but understand that it is not available in most countries, due to it’s strength.

By: Randy C

Randy C — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:53:36 +0000

Hi Ellen – good to hear from you. I hope all is well.

I’ll do all the proper preventative maintenance that I can, and probably some that doesn’t work, too. I wonder if the Mega Catch trap that’s showing up in my Google ad works at all. It sure shows a ton of disgusting dead mosquitoes.

The mosquitoes are probably looking for fresh blood, maybe that’s why they are leaving you alone more often now

By: Ellen

Ellen — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:16:02 +0000

Hi Randy, there are dengue cases here. Baygon is my friend

There are ways to minimize them – don’t plant carabao grass around the house (bermuda or fine lawn grass is better), prevent stagnant water by putting empty cans, bottles and pails upside down outside, use mosquito screens, not too many trees, keep your area clean, etc etc. I am sure you know all these already.

I am a mosquito magnet too – this is why i seldom wear shorts. I do use OFF. You can drink more beer – I was told the Vitamin B1 in the yeast helps repel those buggers. Oh yeah, don’t wear dark clothes.

I have less bites now, maybe I am getting immune to them.

By: Randy C

Randy C — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:31:47 +0000

Good points, Bob. I had not considered the duplicate content aspect. Seems the only benefit of using notes is that it updates automatically. I’m going to turn them off and manually add the links from now on.

Yeah, I’m a mosquito magnet. I’ll definitely be looking into my options. As you say, preventing the breeding around our home would be first and foremost.

By: Mindanao Bob

Mindanao Bob — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:45:37 +0000

Just my thinking, but I would be careful about posting the entire article on FB as a note. Two reasons. First, and most important, you then have duplicate content on the net, and Google could penalize you for that, even though you generated both articles. Second reason, whatever you post on Facebook partly becomes the property of Facebook.

Using the link function, in my opinion is far superior to using the notes. Just my opinion.

Now, on the dengue… I suppose I am lucky that mosquitoes don’t generally mess with me. Whenever you are here in the Philippines, Randy, I will make sure to hang out with you so that the mosquitoes have a preferred option and certainly won’t mess with me!

Seriously, though, Dengue is not something to be messed with. All options should be considered make your environment unfriendly for mosquito breeding and hatching. With such precautions, it can be kept fairly well under control.

By: Randy C

Randy C — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:28:16 +0000

Thanks, Macky.

I added the 2nd (link) after your first comment here. I hadn’t realize that the note and the comments to it stayed within FB. There is some benefit of linking directly to this site, as you pointed out.

I’m sure there is a way to handle that automatically. I’ve have to look into it further.

By: macky

macky — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:11:06 +0000

Hi Randy – I just now saw your 2nd post, the link to this site. The article I read was from the fb note page. I was curious & visited this site to see if you also posted it here.

So, just to be clear, I now see 2 posts of the same article, one a note the other a link to this site.