Summer Enemies 2: Mosquitoes

The Summer Enemies episodes introduce a series of relentless obstacles in the military—each one like a new enemy on the battlefield. The first episode featured invasive plants that grow exponentially, relentlessly and undead, like unstoppable zombies. In many stories or series, there’s a common storytelling pattern where the challenges or threats start off relatively manageable but become progressively more difficult or dangerous as the story continues. 

Today’s second episode may come early in the series, but it completely breaks away from the cliché. In my view, this enemy is the most formidable yet—wielding a power so heinous, it embodies pure fear itself.

Mosquitoes.

It's common knowledge that mosquitoes are considered the deadliest animals in the world—not because they kill directly, but because of the dangerous diseases they spread. When they bite, they can transmit viruses and parasites that cause illnesses like malaria, dengue fever, Zika virus, chikungunya, and yellow fever. These diseases can cause severe illness and death, especially in tropical and subtropical regions. Each year, mosquitoes are responsible for causing millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths, especially from malaria, making them one of the greatest threats to human health worldwide.

The area where our base is located has mosquitoes that carry malaria. Because of this alarming risk, taking malaria prevention medication was practically mandatory when I was first assigned there.

That raises a fundamental question about mosquitoes: why do they bite us, and how do they manage to find us in the first place? Female mosquitoes need blood because it provides the protein and nutrients required for their eggs to develop properly. Without a blood meal, they cannot lay eggs. When a female mosquito bites, she uses her proboscis to pierce the skin and draw blood. During this process, she injects saliva that contains proteins to prevent blood clotting. Our immune system reacts to these foreign proteins by releasing histamine, which causes the bite area to become red, swollen, and itchy.

Mosquitoes find humans by using their strong sense of smell and heat detection. They can sense carbon dioxide (CO₂) through neurons they that are highly sensitive to CO₂ that we breathe out from a distance, which helps them locate us. Once they get closer, they detect body heat, sweat, and body odor using their antennae and special sensors. Some mosquitoes are even attracted to certain skin chemicals and bacteria, which is why some people get bitten more than others.

Biting is not the only weapon they possess. They have wings that produce a high-pitched whine — a sound effect notorious for annoying people, especially when they’re trying to fall asleep. This irritating sound is caused by the rapid beating of their wings, which can flap about 300 to 600 times per second depending on the species. Scientifically, this wingbeat frequency generates a buzzing noise typically between 300 and 600 Hz, a pitch that falls within the most sensitive range of human hearing. Some studies suggest that humans are especially disturbed by this frequency range because our brains interpret it as a potential threat, triggering a heightened state of alert — precisely why it’s so hard to ignore when you're lying in bed. The night before I wrote this essay, my fellow soldiers and I couldn’t fall asleep until 3 a.m.—all because of that relentless buzzing. And as I write this now, I’m bloody scratching my left calf from a mosquito bite.

Mosquitoes usually live in warm, humid places and need standing water to lay their eggs. They are found near ponds, puddles, and even in containers like buckets that are filled with water. Some species, like Aedes aegypti, which is commonly found in South Korea, can also live indoors, hiding in dark, cool areas such as under furniture or in bathrooms. Like from the last essay, Korea summer is humid and hot which is perfect for mosquitoes to easily reproduce. 

Mosquitoes having these dangers to humans does not imply we can not defeat mosquitoes. From countless fights at night with mosquitoes, me and my fellow soldiers stacked valuable data to defeat mosquitoes. Let me introduce the methods I’ve used—ones I’m confident will help you avoid mosquito bites too.

Of course, the first and most common proven strategy is the use of mosquito repellents or vaporizing mosquito repellents, which often contain DEET, picaridin, or citronella oil — compounds that interfere with the mosquito’s olfactory receptors, making it difficult for them to detect human skin odor and carbon dioxide. 

Another effective approach is keeping windows closed and creating strong airflow using fans and air conditioners. Scientific studies show that mosquitoes are weak fliers and are easily disturbed by strong air currents, which can both physically prevent them from landing and disperse the body heat and CO₂ that attract them.

When mosquitoes are too fast to catch, a strategic method is to turn off all the lights temporarily, then suddenly switch them back on. The sudden brightness causes the mosquitoes to freeze and cling to walls or other surfaces to adjust to the light—giving us a perfect chance to strike. I’m not sure there’s any scientific explanation behind it, but after plenty of trial and error, I’ve found that the light-off-then-on method works pretty well.