Maybe I Shouldn’t Have Brought The Mosquitoes Onto The Ark

It’s been several weeks into this dark journey aimed at preserving all animal life on land, and I’m having second thoughts over this decision to allow entry to certain species of stinging insects.

Creatures aboard my ark are barred from reproducing, with the amount of food limited to basic survival needs. The Anopheles mosquito, which uses the blood of humans and some other warm-blooded animals to help produce eggs, will not engage in that behavior while aboard, but by my six hundred years, I may have made a mistake in letting that species into the ark. Once everyone is released following the Deluge, the mosquitoes will once again make the lives of my family and descendants miserable.

Those things carry disease. I probably should have discreetly closed the door before they could get in – yeesh, is that an itch on my wrist, or is my mind playing tricks on me? I’m already suffering, and the little buggers haven’t even touched me.

I know, of the hundreds of species of mosquito, only a few bite humans. They inject an anesthetic into the skin so the victim will not feel the proboscis being inserted and the blood sucked out of capillaries. I know how it works. After the mosquito flies away,  the anesthetic leaves a itching, burning sensation that only causes further irritation if scratched. You don’t have to tell me any of this. Some people might experience only a few minutes of itching if they leave the bite alone, but I feel its full intensity for up to a week.

What’s more, mosquitoes also carry several potentially fatal diseases, including malaria and yellow fever. Considering those attributes, I harbor serious doubts whether I dd the right thing taking the Lord’s command as literally as I did. I mean, they don’t fill any unique ecological niche, so they wouldn’t be missed. Why did the Lord create them, anyway?

I didn’t actually do all the gathering of animals – that would be impossible. But I did keep track as they came aboard, and I could have waited for those nasty little things come along and just, you know, squash them or something. I can’t do it here – too many others watching. Wait, was that Ham, giving me a look? Did I just say that out loud? I hope not.

It’s enough to drive a man to drink.