Mosquitoes / die Moskitos

Usually I associate mosquitoes with the heat of summer, annual pests that emerge sometime in June when school is ending and disappear again when it starts to get cool in the fall. There is a heartier breed of mosquito in Salzburg, however. We had mosquitoes until late October or perhaps even into November, but it doesn't matter which because mosquitoes shouldn't be around when it's turning into winter. And because there are no screens on windows here, they just fly right in and join you for a meal.

I had sort of forgotten about those mosquitoes until today. Why today? Well, mosquito season has started again. We spotted the first one this morning in Nikolas' bedroom. We were playing with his racetrack when we saw it, and Nikolas ran to get the fly swatter (why he thought a mosquito warranted a fly swatter, I'm not sure). He then proceeded to chase the thing around the room swatting at everything in sight until it was smashed into a dark moist smudge on the floor.

It must have sneaked in for breakfast before we saw it, because Nikolas has a bite on his neck and another on his ankle. They didn't itch until we pointed them out, or at least that is what he says. Next time we won't point them out...

Mosquitoes on April 14?! It's going to be a long spring.