If it were not so routine, it would sound like Freddy Kruger and Nightmare on Elm Street. The female mosquitoes need blood to create eggs and they seek it out as insatiably as any vampire in a horror movie, while the males go sipping nectar from plants like fairies.

Well, that is the nightmare setting, but it is not that far from the truth either. For many peoples in the world it is also a genuine life and death problem. Millions of people die every year from malaria and tons more from dengue too. Yet both of these diseases are curable as are most of the other mosquito-borne diseases like Yellow Fever, Japanese Jungle Encephalopathy and Nile fever.

The first thing to understand is that typically these diseases can be inoculated against, particularly if you are going on vacation. The next thing to bear in mind – it might help – is that not all mosquitoes are the same. For instance, in Thailand, the dengue-bearing mosquito (often called the ‘Egyptian’) comes out during the day time and so bites then too. Between about an hour before dawn and an hour after dusk, whereas the malaria-carrying mosquito, the Anopheles, is a night time huntress.

I am not recommending that you can relax your vigilance during the day, although many people assume that they can. Nobody wants dengue fever either.

So, what can you do? Before you go anywhere, read up on the district or check with medical experts. That bit is not difficult, especially, if you know how to search the Internet. Then prepare yourself with inoculations if the risk is serious enough in your judgment or a medical expert’s judgment. In my opinion, that is the minimum that a conscientious person ought to be expected to do to safeguard him or herself, the family and the community at large.

Then there are a few other things you can do. For example, wear baggy clothes, but long sleeves and long trousers. If you are thin on top by choice or not, wear a hat or cap. Wear socks or stockings in the evening to protect your toes. Get a good-quality mosquito repellent and put it on your bare skin, as often as necessary by the manufacturer, which is usually every four or five hours.

You could reasonably stop there, but I like to go a bit further, if the circumstance warrants it. If I am outdoors in the garden at home or in a hotel, I like to have one of those tennis racquet style electric bug zappers with me. They are wonderful for zapping the odd mosquito that buzzes you. They are good for clearing the bedroom before retiring too and lastly, if I’m renting, hiking, camping or caravaning, I may find space for a rechargeable lantern-style bug zapper too.

If the little so-and-sos are going to give me a fever, they are going to have to try very hard to do it.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with work on mosquito bite allergy problems. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Mosquito Bite Swellings.