北京蚊子－ A couple of questions

[doumeizhen]

How long do these monsters live? How many times can they actually bite you? Why do they only bite certain people (read, me!) and most importantly, what is your favorite method for killing them? Do any of you actually say 成佛, turn into buddha, when you do?

I've been absolutely tormented by these creatures tonight, and I am down to what I belive the last one is, but can't kill him. When one of them was coming at me I panicked and sprayed it with the first thing at hand: liquid band-aid/plaster. That worked well, but it smells bad and required me being awake at 4 am. I need something more efficent!

I assure you I am normally a peace-loving being, but with all of the blood I have lost, I don't see it being strange that I would suffer from some blood lust...

[skylee]

How about sticking this to the bed and putting on this repellent. They worked for me when I went to the yellow-fever area (s america) last year.

Or perhaps you could consider burning 蚊香.

[Xiao Kui]

My friend introduced me to the electric mosquito mat burner when I first moved to China 7 yrs ago, and I've been using it ever since. It works great, killing or keeping away mosquitos in abt a 15 ft radius for 12 hrs. I turn it on at night and there is no buzzing.

Here's a pic:

http://www.aestar.com/assets/product/middle/0138.jpg

It does have a slight odor. Usually the cheaper the brand the less effective and the smellier it is. Some brands I've liked are 999, 彩虹 Cai3 Hong2 and Raid: don't know what's available where you are, but you can get them at any supermarket in the Chinese cities. CaiHong even has a childsafe kind. Usually you buy the electric thingy and mats separate. The mats come in boxes of 30.

if you happen to be out of range of the thing and get bitten, try some good old 清凉油 qing1 liang2 you2 (Tiger Balm) You can get that at any Chinese pharmacy.

[roddy]

They rarely bite me, they seem to have much more fun buzzing past the side of the head and making me slap my ear. Must be laughing themselves stupid.

I'd try one of the electric repellent burners - used to have one, seemed to work well. Any decent sized supermarket should have one.

[赫杰]

haha funny thread. my favorite method of killing is by any means possible. being in hot muggy clammy wuhan, and living near some lakes and the yangze river, i sometimes feel like this is the mosquito kingdom. i used 蚊香 for a long time, and it worked out pretty good. look for the 40 packs for like 8 yuan

but i decided on a simple fan to blow the mosqitos away! this works great because you sweat non stop night and day here, is easier than messing with the 蚊香, and will eliminate that stupid buzzing noise. so just get a simple floor fan, put it on a chair or something and have it point toward you while you sleep! some people say you can get cold from fans, but i personally have not encountered this...and many koreans believe that fans left running in rooms can even lead to death...go figure...do a google search on "fan death" and see for yourself. haha

if you are really bent on killing them like i was, move all of your furniture away from the walls and create big enough openings for you see in and walk into. this will allow easy access to kill them and limit their hiding places. i will never forget the night i stayed up 8 hours here in wuhan killing mosquitos. needless to say, i did not go to class the next day. i just wanted to see how many mosquitos were in my room, i think i killed around 30. but there was still few in there by the time i finally went to bed around 7 am.

again if you are really bent on killing them with your hands, you can learn to trick them. i learned many tricks that night. i have found they really like to attack while you are laying down, or generally just immobile. i found by sitting off the bed and facing a clear white wall, allowed for the easiest way of killing. then, while sitting off the bed, i would focus my attention on my ankles, as i have found they really like to get you there on your feet and the back of your ankles (especially if your legs are a little hairy). and every now and then get up and check behind the furniture looking for them and kill them while they are resting. they also seem to be attracted to the co2 in your breath, so the more i exhaled, i would find the more mosquitos i would attract.

when killing them with your hands, i found that it is best not wildly slap them, but kind of used a controlled almost slow kind of clapping. i think is because the wind you generate during the clapping process will actually push them away, causing you to miss. indeed, most of my kills came while they were resting or bitting me. remember, they are not like flies. when attempting a kill while they are resting, you can usually get your hand really close to them, and then use one quick motion squash them.

happy hunting:lol:

J

[gato]

Is Wuhan that bad?

[imron]

You could also try electric fly-swats :-) You should be able to pick them up in most Chinese department stores. They basically look like a tennis racket, except that thanks to the aid of two A4 batteries, the "net" electrifies at the press of a button. Wave the electrified net at the mosquito and it gets completely vaporised in a flash and a bang :-)

[heifeng]

I love those mosquito rackets! Frying them is almost like playing badminton indoors!

[Qcash3]

I love those mosquito rackets! Frying them is almost like playing badminton indoors!

I definitely want one of those. I never dreamed that I would see a thread devoted to mosquito killing, but I guess you live and you learn. Are the mosquito's in Beijing really that bad? Is there a specific time of year when they are the most annoying? How do they make it into your apartments in such large numbers....?

[heifeng]

Beijing's mosquitos aren't terrible, just really annoying during the summer months. If they are really bad you can invest in a mosquito net around your bed so they can't buzz to close to your head at night.