Mosquitoes are pesky, pestiferous, and pestilential, besides being prolific.
One of the most-plentiful mosquito species in North Dakota has a scientific name of: “aedes vexans.” “Aedes” meaning “unpleasant” or “odious;” and “vexans” meaning “vexing.” You get the picture. Both elements of its name mean “extremely nasty.”
Because mosquitoes have been forever-troublesome, Paul-Bunyanesque tales of the insidious insect have arisen like odiferous vapors from stagnant waters. Here are a few of those legends.
In Bismarck, the summertime population was calculated at “7,287,691,476,” with 99% being mosquitoes. Wells County was said to have produced 400,000 mosquitoes for every square-inch of territory.
An Eastern newspaper wrote that “millions” of mosquitoes swarmed “out of every pool of water” in North Dakota; and were so hefty they would fly into your face “with a heavy thud and stay there – ‘til you kill them.”
At Northwood, a pioneer recalled that mosquitoes “were larger in the earlier years than later. They were so big ... that he could hear them crawling on the top of the shanty” of his homestead.
A Missouri River mosquito was said to be a “formidable animal, fluctuating in size between the bald eagle and the snowy owl.” These legendarily massive insects could swoop down into the river and pull out catfish.
A fisherman said the Missouri riverbank mosquitoes were “much more numerous and larger than the fish” in the river.
A visitor in Fargo noted that North Dakota mosquitoes are said to weigh 10 pounds at birth, and whenever anyone ventured outdoors, they would attack.
It was on this date in 1891, that D.R. Streeter, editor of the Emmons County Record in Linton, wrote about a “terrific fight between a . . . mosquito and a flickertail gopher,” in which the desperate gopher bit the mosquito and “broke one of its legs,” but the gigantic mosquito finally speared the gopher on its stinger and “flew away” with the dead-carcass.
Editor Streeter complained that Linton’s voracious mosquitoes attacked hen’s eggs and sucked the yolks clean out of the eggshells. These skeeters were so enormous they would attack henhouses and carry off young chickens to their swamp lairs.
All-in-all, these legendary tales added a new dimension to North Dakota culture. There was not just 4 seasons within a year, but also mosquito season.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Steve Hoffbeck, MSUM History Department.
Sources:
“Beats New Jersey Size,” Bismarck Weekly Tribune, July 3, 1891, p. 7.
“Mosquitoes Bother,” Minneapolis Star, May 30, 1944, p. 1; “2 Wet Years Bring New, Powerful Pest,” Minneapolis Star, July 7, 1945, p. 3.
Northwood, North Dakota, Diamond Jubilee, 1884-1959 (Bismarck: [Sherman, Peet], 1959, p. 52.
“Another Tenderfoot Heard From,” Jamestown Weekly Alert, June 15, 1883, p. 2.
“Current Comment,” Bismarck Tribune, July 6, 1883, p. 7.
“The City,” Bismarck Tribune, July 14, 1899, p. 3.
“Letter From Dakota,” Baltimore County Union, October 23, 1880, p. 3.
“Robinson, English on the Road to Fargo,” The Times [Munster, Indiana], April 12, 2004, p. C2.
