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mossies

75cm x 1.4m diameter, mixed media kinetic sculpture. Walthamstow is one of those areas that has the largest mosquitoes in the country. No doubt due to the proximity of Epping Forest and the marshy areas of the Lea. They are part of the wonderful diversity of nature that we experience here a-bouts, without them we would not have the birds fishes and frogs that we do have. For the most part mosquitoes are benign, leaving just a raw red patch after they have drawn your blood, unless you are bit allergic to the anticoagulant they inject into you to keep the blood flowing. But the big one doesn't even do that, it does not bite, unlike the species of mosquitoes you only find on the underground which has evolved in the last 100 years. But when you get bitten you will have had a good chance of seeing them coming, even hearing them, or you could up your Marmite intake, it works for some, it's the vitamin B content they don't like apparently. They have been here a long time William Morris would have been familiar with them especially riding around the forest on his little pony, no wonder he had a suit of armour. On the plus side we are also getting an even larger incomer, a mosquito with a stripy body, global warming has allowed it habitat to spread further north, onto southern parts of the UK. It unfortunately has the potential to carry Dengue fever, but we need to get a bit warmer still before that happens, and our local mosquitoes will be carrying malaria by then.

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