THE POINT OF A MOSQUITO?

It was born with the loudest approach warning noise, compared to its size, in the insect world, which made killing it in single numbers easier to do.

Any sound of its incessant whining arrival sends humans and animals in a spin, trying to kill it before it has time to land and inject the skin.

Humans dive under bedclothes, hoping it will give up and move away; not always that easy, so lights on, paper or book in hand, you dive around the bedroom, giving vicious swipes, not always successfully, especially when it settles somewhere high up out of reach.

There it craftily stays quiet ’til the lights are off and you are back in bed. Then it launches the next whining, searching attack, and you get up once more to fight back.

Mosquitoes are part of the ecosystem, food for fish and other underwater creatures, when they are in their larva form. When adults, they become food for birds and other land creatures.

They are also plant pollinators when they land on flowers to collect nectar.

They are dangerous to us only if we are allergic to their secretions, or if they have bitten and sucked blood from a human or animal with a disease, which is then passed on when they bite us.

I am so glad I am not a mosquito.

🦟 🦟 🦟 🦟 🦟 🦟 🦟 🦟 🦟 🦟 🦟 🦟

2026 Penny Wobbly of WobblingPen

BUBBLING ALONG

The sound of running water bubbling over rocks.

Creating small waterfalls where leaves spiral about and overtake one another.

Together, they go on to a long, spiralling drop.

To be forced to the surface and propelled out to the quieter edges.

Where they take advantage of a bit of a rest.

Before being caught and rushed along at speed, battered and bruised, shedding bits to drop to the river bed.

Where tiny fish nudge the debris along in a little game.

Before finally gobbling them up as food, at the end of a fun-filled day.

​(C) 2023 Penny Wobbly Storyteller of WobblingPen