Yeah Yeah Yeahs – "Mosquito" (2013)

He’ll suck your blood

He’ll suck your blood

He’ll suck your blood

Suck your

Suck your

Suck your blood

Every few years, we go into a collective panic over some new infectious disease.

The disease-of-the year for 2016 is the Zika virus, which was isolated in Uganda in 1947 but only recently spread to the Western Hemisphere.  

Zika fever isn’t fatal.  Symptoms are usually mild and short-lived.  But it can cause serious birth defects in the babies of women who are infected when pregnant.  

Zika is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes.  So is West Nile virus.  (Tell the truth – you haven’t worried about West Nile virus for years, even though it’s killed roughly one hundred Americans in each of the past three years.)

Scientists say you can reduce your risk of being infected with the Zika virus, West Nile virus, and other mosquito-borne diseases by using an insect repellent.  

According to Consumer Reports, products made with picaridin or DEET are most effective when it comes to repelling mosquitoes.  

Make sure you have enough!

Off!®, which contains DEET, is the most popular insect repellent.  

Which leads me to this question:

Do you put Off!® on . . . or do you put on Off!®?

*     *     *     *     *

“Mosquito” was released by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in 2013 on their album of the same name.

By the way, the lyrics quoted above should really say “She’ll suck your blood.”  

That’s because only female mosquitoes bite humans.  (They need blood to produce eggs.)  Male mosquitoes feed on flower nectar.

Here’s “Mosquito”:

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