The Fine Art of Mosquito Appreciation

Part of the Circle            18 June 2013

Porcupine, tolerating the mosquitoes

Part of the strange joy of a summer biological field season is the constant presence of biting insects.  While this may sound like a sarcastic play on irritating mosquitoes, my reality is widely defined by those insects that take blood meals.  They keep me sharp, wary, attentive, and probably help me achieve my proper intensity for the effective exploration and description of breeding bird communities.  I have grown to expect them, to interact with them, to tolerate them, and even miss them when the last day of the ornithology field season has rolled behind me and I awake in a safe, quiet room with no threat of dangers in the day.  

Golden-winged Warbler, a resident of mosquito-rich mosaics of bogs, sand plains, and forests

...and a scratcher of insect bites...

In the United States, too many of us have come to expect comfort and sterile isolation from the wild.  We have lost touch with what it feels like to be alive, and, as a grim result, we are guilty of destroying much of what we fail to experience.  Life…at times…feels like mosquitoes.  They remind us we are alive.  Here is a reality about mosquitoes that may change how you view them.

Blanding's Turtle suffering the abundance of summer mosquitoes

Ecosystems, including microscopic ecosystems, are interdependent systems, with many “cogs and wheels” that are closely connected, co-evolved, and necessary to proper function.  On the microscopic level, our immune systems are healthier when raided by a myriad of small parasites.  Like a bored dog, an idle immune system tears down its own home, the body, causing all sorts of autoimmune disease issues.  Perhaps it is the mosquitoes that keep beating back my own potential for Rheumatoid Arthritis.  June is a month of happy elbows and fingers as I hike hard, survey birds and their habitats, and feed thousands upon thousands of hungry mosquitoes.

A healthy porcupine, an individual, a microbial ecosystem...

...and a scratcher of mosquitoes...

...adaptation for climbing trees and swatting insects...

12:41 AM, 18 June 2013, respite in the cool of the night, a mother porcupine nurses her young

Mosquito and black fly larvae are critical biomass components in aquatic ecosystems, food for hundreds of other species, including damselflies, ducklings, and fish.  Deer flies serve a similar role in feeding dragonflies in the terrestrial realms.    Because so many species of biting flies (including mosquitoes) greatly increase their own reproductive potential by parasitism on the rest of us as they successfully consume a blood meal, it is our suffering that lends to a huge biotic potential in healthy ecosystems.  We join the circle.  We pay for ducks and fish with our own blood. 

Sandhill Crane, an animal built, in part, by invertebrate food sources...and indirectly, at times, built of mosquito biomass...

In the extreme case, I wonder how many animals die of exposure to parasites.  As much as they increase biotic potential, perhaps there are times when they limit it.   While I have learned to admire mosquitoes, I have also learned to admire those who tolerate them endlessly in the summer, those beings who can make no escape.   I believe that porcupines love a brisk November chill and that wolves seek more than just a warming sun as they bask on a January snow slope.  Those wolves and porcupines are remembering what it was to be bothered by a din of mosquitoes, and I believe they rejoice in a winter respite, a time of comfort.

All images were made using a refurbished Canon 7D and Canon 300mm fL IS lens.  Enjoying a great field season!