Red Zone Mosquitoes focus. Thursday 12.04.12. Late January, one morning I awoke with a nasty bite. I though a white-tail-spider had bitten my left ear giving me a thick ear, red, swollen & itchy. The bite took weeks to heal. It also caused the left side of my face to redden, swelling, with red, blotchy, lumpy skin on the left side of my face & neck. I had a stiff neck & shoulder for two weeks. I also had a sore throat making swallowing difficult for about a week.
I'd trekked Christchurch easten suburbs snapping stagnant water there. Was foul water I'd encountered anything to do with the bite? I visited my GP who prescribed an antibiotic for the bite.
04.04.12. The Press published an article on the striped-mosquito Aedes notoscriptus. That's what bit me!
During quake-times there was lots more stagnant water around Christchurch due to broken, leaky sewage-pipes, broken water-pipes, broken storm-water-pipes & broken drains. Thus waterlogged, stricken, red-zone eastern suburbs by rivers, wetlands & estuary & the liquefactioned red-zone-CBD were ideal breeding places for mosquitoes.
Thursday 12.04.12. Luke woke up with a mosquito bite on his right hand which swelled up, red, blotchy, lumpy & itchy. He could hardly breath, his throat swollen, windpipe constricted. Leah drove to a pharmacy for antihistamines which sorted out that problem. Luke took a day off work.
Having lived in Christchurch since 1995, it was the first time mosquitoes affected us. It was caused by stagnant water lying around Christchurch. There was lots of new ponding like on Travis Rd by Travis Wetland where land sunk during quakes.
12.04.12. While writing this post, a midday, M4.6 quake struck: 10km depth, 10km northeast of Christchurch. (GeoNet). Rumbled by, shook our house.
Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Pesky mosquito invasion creates bad buzz (The Press / Stuff Co).
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