We sleep under them here. Everyone does. You can get mozzie nets that have been pre-treated with a chemical to repel mozzies or not treated. Fahim opted for the un-treated – he and I both have very sensitive skin, and we don’t know now either of us would react to the chemicals. We’re both allergic to mozzies, too, and so we’re a bit fanatic about the mozzie net. (Fahim says: I didn’t know about the treated nets :p Did I ever say that or is that a figment of Laurie’s imagination or something that you get in North America? :p)(Laurie says: Yeah, he said that. He’s hallucinating if he thinks he didn’t.)
Mozzie nets also come in different colors and styles. You can get round, square, or rectangular top frames, and you can get them in white, pink, blue, or green. Ours is green.
We tend to get under the net when the mozzies start biting, which can be anywhere from 7 to 9 in the evening. But first things first.
We open our windows after sunrise in the morning, around 7 am, and close them before sunset in the evening, around 5:30 pm. This helps to minimize on mozzie infiltrators, but it doesn’t eliminate them, only minimizes them. We have a lot of windows, and I mentioned previously that all the windows are grated. What I didn’t mention before is that all the windows and the doors have vents on top of them – slats of wood that allow air to flow freely in and out of the house. Nothing here is screened, which, quite honestly, would help a lot. We’re talking about screening the vents to help further cut down on the mozzie activity.
We also have this solid chemical cake that we put in this device which dispels the chemical. It’s supposed to repel mozzies, too. Neither Fahim nor I were convinced it helps, so last night we went without. Empirical evidence, so to speak.
Another thing about mozzie nets. If your arm or leg are against the mozzie net, the mozzies outside the net can still bite you, so you have to keep all body parts away from the net. Fahim is a bed hog – I wake up, and he’s got an entire foot of room on the other side of him, and I’m right up against the net. He doesn’t wake up – remember I mentioned previously that he sleeps very deeply? I’ve tried rolling him, but that’s been almost impossible. The best I’ve been able to come up with so far is affection. Yup. Hug him and use his bed space. He then claims the next morning that I’ve been molesting him, but dammit, what’s a girl to do?
Last night. No chemical stupor. I got bitten like crazy. I think a few renegades made it inside the net when I went to the bathroom at 2 in the morning, though. But I was bitten everywhere. And Fahim, the usual solid sleeper, wasn’t sleeping so solid – scratching, swatting, and all the rest.
Well, I’ve been getting up to pee every night since I got here (yes, Tony, I know – it means I’m not sleeping properly. I don’t know if it’s still me adjusting to sleeping at a different time, or if it’s the PLMS made worse by the stress of moving/marriage/being in a new culture. I suspect it’s all of the above.) and the other nights we didn’t have as many critters eating us, so guess what? Resume chemical cake.
