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Comment by climb_stealth | Hacker News Reader

Come to Australia! The mosquitoes are huge and pretty much silent. So they don't irritate with noise and are somewhat easy to spot. Definitely compared to the tiny hellspawn mosquitoes that roam in Europe. Those are impossible to find in a room and absolutely infuriating with their whiny noise when they buzz around the ears.

/edit

Someone mentioned flies. Don't come to Australia if you have a problem with flies. Those fuckers are scared of nothing and they respect nothing. They just sit in your face whilst you are walking and don't give a shit. Much worse than the European ones that are flying around but don't really land on skin.

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Recommending here those high voltage mesh paddles on a stand, with a UV LED on. So gratifying to hear the snap: One down!

'Skeets typically are waiting high up on the wall for lights to go out. Go around the bedroom and nearby rooms and squash them, if you haven't got the paddle.

Put a triple-digit LED counter on it

Mosquitos are better attracted with a source of carbon dioxide.

UV led actually attract males, who do not bites, so there's that.

The best protection for me is a large rectangle net bigger than the bed, and it gives a royal suite touch to the bedroom.

Hearing a mosquito bumping into your net is like being warm and sheltered when it's raining outside.

And if you have hunting urges, don't like the noise and can't sleep with ear plugs, they are easier to kill since they will often stay between the net and a wall.

> UV led actually attract males

This might explain why I have sometimes needed to lay the thing over my ear instead of leaving it on the nightstand.

Maybe I should leave a glass of warm seltzer standing by it.

Regarding flies, watching The Proposition¹ a few years ago (a local cinema had a Nick Cave theme at the time) made me realise how bad the flies could be in Australia.

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Proposition_(2005_film)

Would you recommend watching it? It's the first time I hear of it but it sounds interesting.

I thought it was excellent and would thoroughly recommend it. From memory, it’s very well directed, acted and shot, with an excellent and fitting soundtrack. The film gave an insight into a time and place I wouldn’t be particularly familiar with – other than various depictions of the Ned Kelly story. I couldn’t say it would appeal to everyone but my wife also enjoyed it – and she claims to dislike “Westerns”.

Great, thanks for your response! That sounds good. I have put it to the top of the list to be watched next. I'm not a massive Western fan but there's something about them that makes them easy to watch.

I'd mention Dead Man (1995) as a Western or Western themed movie to watch. I would give it a very similar description to yours.

So the only thing that doesn't kill you in Australia is Mosquitoes, who would have though that!

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