I would like to add to this debate about Frogs, Dogs, Humans AND mosquitoes. Yes, its true about their abilities to find almost any place where water can be contained, for the mosquito to breed in their thousands & millions, within a small amount of time. It is only the female mosquito that bites you, (the male is a vegetarian), she needs large amounts of protein that can be got from human & animal blood for the eggs to develop quickly & proficiently. She alone is 'guilty' of transferring the parasites that inhabit her stomach to the unwary blood donor. The moment she pierces the skin, the parasites make their way into their new host, where they multiply. The consequences are that the major killer of any human being in Africa (besides the Hippo & HIV virus) is the mosquito! We need to keep our little plots of land clear of any debris that may contain water, check where the rain falls, from your house, and into any blocked gullies, barrels, tin cans & old tyres. We have a plot of land which we have to keep clear by law & twice a year, the land has to be cleared of debris, overgrown bushes & remove any dumped rubbish, or be fined by the local council. Is this in England? No! Is this in Goa? No! Its in Mauritius. The goverment took a good hard look at what happened when several thousands of cases of 'chikengunya' were reported a couple of years ago, dozens of elderly & young children died, many thousands were bitten & from these quite a large percentage suffered from aches and pains in their joints and muscles. My wife & two daughters were very lucky to escape with only mild cramps & little vomiting. Many still have the symptoms which may last them for the rest of their lives. The tourists fled from Mauritius & this would have been a bitter blow to the Government of Mauritius, after so many set-backs in the economy, with loss of jobs in the textile industry, low sugar can harvest, etc, so a way was found, by emergency legislation which gave the local councils the power to fine those who ignored the warnings, but also to ensure the public were aware of the crisis that was about to hit. The mostiks of Mauritius are still there, lower in number but not so fatal, you will never totally obliterate them, that is an impossible task, they have been about for millions of years, so widespread that there is no way of getting rid of them in the world, yet, but the Mauritian mosquitoes do not carry the malaria, denge or other other parasites, and if the Government of Mauritius has anything to do with it, it will stay that way. I would also like to remind everyone reading this that SWIMMING POOLS are another source where the mosquitos lay their eggs. So many owners of swimming pools do not treat the water, some may go away on holiday for a while but forget to get the swimming pool treated with the solutions (its costly, so many do not treat the pools as often as they should), and you can get hundreds of thousands of mosquitoes from these hatcheries! As for frogs, dogs and other animals, in my opinion they are as equally important as any other living creature, but of course if you have the choice of saving just one, it must always be your fellow human being first, but this does not mean you do not put resources to help those less able to help themselves. Other ways of containing animals (and humans) is contraception / sterilisation etc. I dont mean obliglatory sterilisation for humans, that would be insane, we have to rely on common sense & see where this leads us, but certainly in (pet) animals (dogs & cats especially) should be sterilised or spayed. That goes for any one species that is overcrowding our already overcrowded planet. I dont mean selective breeding programmes, just sensible additions to the family, in the wild that is a different story, they need to breed to survive, just another day, let alone continue the line. John Monteiro
Regards John Monteiro
