Mosquito Patrol

11 Mosquito Patrol We were going to spend a month at a beautiful cottage. It was not a fancy place, but it was right on a lake. One thing we all looked forward to was campfires at night. The first day passed and when evening came, we sat around our first campfire. We were all enjoying ourselves, when someone cried, " Ouch! I just got bit by a mosquito. " As the darkness increased, so did the number of mosquitoes. There were only a few at first, but it soon seemed like there were hundreds of them. Bug spray only worked for a while, and the strong smell of it made my little sister feel sick. Things were so bad that we gave up trying to have campfires at night. It just wasn't any fun. Through the trees, we could see a cottage about 50 metres away. One day, a group of people arrived there. And that night, they had a campfire. We watched as they sat around the fire for hours and never seemed to be bothered by mosquitoes. How did they do it? We were curious.

The next day, we went over and asked them. The man pointed to a small flat box nailed to a tree beside the campfire. " That's our mosquito patrol, " he said. My dad was very interested. “ Really, how does it work?" he asked. “ Does it use radio signals?" " No! " laughed the man. " It uses bats. " My mother looked horrified. " Come on over tonight, and we'll show you, " he said. That night, it was amazing to watch. As it got dark, the mosquitoes started to buzz around. But we soon began to hear squeaks. It was as though the mother bat had called, " Feeding time! " All of a sudden, you could see little black shapes moving swiftly in the air, like little mice with wings. They swooped with amazing precision and feasted on the mosquitoes. They never bothered us. And those five bats kept us mosquito-free all night! “ Forget bug spray! " our neighbour said. “ Mother Nature has the best answer. ' And of course, he was right.