Monday afternoon Made, an employee of the landlord came over and asked Ika if she wanted the garden fogged. Made does this once in a while and it keeps the number of adult mosquitoes down for a short period of time. People who have stayed at a hotel in Bali will remember the noise the machine makes. It looks like a silver rocket launcher and the guy starts it like a chain saw. The noise is similar to chain saw and before you see the person fogging, you will see clouds of grey fog appearing over buildings. The smell is something like a petrochemical and whenever I’m around it I get out the way fast.
My Indonesian relatives don’t seem to mind it at all. When they came here last time I saw my fsther in law and brother in law chatting in the kitchen, in a toxic fog.
Hotels will fog every few days and the best time to do that is right before ‘bug hour’ dusk. Today I was upstairs typing, all windows shut. Ika and Jevon stayed downstairs inside the lower bedroom. I can’t help thinking this stuff is harmful to health in some way, after all it is a pesticide. An article from Arizona talks about use over there, and cites the lack of human study as a reason for not knowing if the chemicals used are harmful. They should come to Indonesia and test some of the guys who do this for a living.
Our house gets bird-sized mosquitoes, due largely to the forest next door. Fogging will keep them down tonight buy by tommorow more will take their place. I’m actually used to getting bitten and usually get about 4 bites a day. Jevon gets the occassional bite too, but isn’t a ‘mozzie magnet’ like some people.
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