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Fact ……The presence of mosquitoes is normal, relative to the temperature and amount of standing water. You are advised to use anti-mosquito products that include Deet or Citriodiol also avoid sitting outside for too long when mosquitoes are present.

We ventured out for a beer that evening after a hard day working on boat chores. All clean from shower I jumped into the back of Stuarts van and Garry drove the 1 mile or so into the little place Saint Louis Du Rhone, it was 7 pm.

The Pair of them could not decide were to stop too drink beer … any restaurant i said but they thought it was rude not to order food with their beer. Being a well travelled person I know England has drinking pubs but this is not the case in many other countries. When your stuck in the back of the van, the boys just are not listening to the noise in the back, 20 minutes they spent driving around a town that would of took no more than a 5 mins. In the end i win we stopped at a lovely little pizza place happy to serve us just beer.

By the time the beer’s have arrived its fastly approaching sunset, Stuart wanted to chat up pretty pizza lady so he orders a pizza which was not going to be cooked till 7.30pm. Half way through our beers the street starts to get dark, all of a sudden out from nowhere i have at least 50 mosquitoes land on both my arms biting me, i look down at my legs there is another 100 of the things from the dark abyss biting me. To cut a long story short i stood up and freaked leaving my beer behind I ran off trying to get the little shits off me.

Garry located me a few minutes later i asked to go back to the boat, one shocked Garry said you have half a beer left to drink! Bugger that take me back I demanded, which he did, then went back to collect Stuart and his pizza. They sat out on deck eating the pizza whilst I was hiding inside, that was the last time i was outside after the sun set.

The next morning reality hit Stuart as he sat there scratching away at all the bites he had received the night before. I told Stuart don’t scratch you will make them worse, its mind over matter just ignore them. Garry had a lucky escape on the 1st night, smug Garry sat there not scratching with no bites but that was soon to change.

For me life now proceeded between the hours of 8am to 8pm everyday. Here in Port Navy Services all the mosquitoes are immune to everything and they are present by the billion trillions. Garry went for a shower that evening just around sunset, came out all clean and hot, only to be pounced on by hundreds of mosquitoes. The next morning Garry joined Stuart on the scratching ritual whilst still taking the piss, Stuart was coming off worse they joked about the mosquitoes lining up for Stuart to come out of his van.

Mosquitoes can be attracted by CO2 emissions from 150-200 metres away and as they get closer, heat and odours help them decide which prey to go for. Tiger mosquito prefer humans she seeks out the proteins in blood she needs to mature her eggs which she lays about 48 hours later and then the cycle begins again, eggs hatch within 3 – 4 days and can live for 30 days.

Stuart a few days later met a lovely couple on a catamaran just arrived to take their boat out of water the next day and store on the hard for winter. They had never been to this dry port in the South of France, so being the very helpful chap Stuart is he warned this couple about the mosquitoes.

She heeded his advice, in fact she said they don’t bite me i will be fine. Well famous last words as Stuart watched this couple from the safety of his van later that night as the pissed lady was running around her boat screaming loudly lets starts the engines and get the hell out of here.

We made a few friends here at Port Navy Services, a lovely couple Martin and Clarissa from England who had moved their boat by low loader from northern France to avoid the Orcas who are terrorising the waters around Spain and Portugal since 2020 knocking off rudders on passing boats.

Peter and his family from Poland who were gluing the keel back onto their boat plus many other jobs needed to be completed. All of us living in the mosquito infested area whilst doing boat jobs with the same end goal of launching our boats back into water.