Mosquitoes love me. In a crowd, I’m the one who gets bitten. So imagine my joy when I read about Gallinippers! Monster mosquitoes poised to strike Florida. I added the boldfacing in the quote from the NBC Science report that follows:
One of the most ferocious insects you’ve ever heard of — it’s the size of a quarter and its painful bite has been compared to being knifed — is set to invade Florida this summer.
The Sunshine State, already home to man-eating sinkholes, invading Burmese pythons, swarming sharks, tropical storms and other disasters, can expect to see an explosion of shaggy-haired gallinippers (Psorophora ciliata), a type of giant mosquito, according to entomologist Phil Kaufman of the University of Florida.
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And as adults, the voracious pests feed day and night (unlike everyday mosquitoes, which generally feed only at dawn and dusk). Their bodies are strong enough to bite through clothing, and they’re known to go after pets, wild animals and even fish, MyFoxOrlando.com reports.
“It’s about 20 times bigger than the sort of typical, Florida mosquito that you find,” Anthony Pelaez of Tampa’s Museum of Science and Industry told Fox Orlando. “And it’s mean, and it goes after people, and it bites, and it hurts.”
Pelaez described the gallinipper’s bite as so painful it “feels like you’re being stabbed.”
Although the article says they can be as big as a quarter, judging from photos Gallinippers are often only the size of a nickel. Even so …
