Those Pesky Critters...

For many visitors to India, fear of the mosquitoes and other biting local fauna gives them some sleepless nights. Here is our take on them and how to manage your anxiety as well as the reality.

There is good news and bad news: the bad news first. The Kerala backwaters are in their nature aqueous and so a natural habitat for water insects like mosquitos. As a result that buzzing sound is quite possibly a mosquito planning the arc of attack. There is good news which those watery depths are a natural habitat for all the predators whose diet is largely comprised of mosquito larvae. These rapacious hordes keep the biting critters  under some control.

There is further good news which relates to the type of mosquito encountered in Kerala. These are not of the genus Aegyptis which are the carriers of Malaria; as a result you are not at threat of picking up Malaria from a bite. Medical advice therefore does not recommend the taking of malaria pills during a visit to Kerala.

Managing mosquitoes is partly common sense, partly grin and bear and a third part guerilla tactics.

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