It is rainy season in Senegal.  The puddles in low areas are perfect breeding areas for mosquitos.  Our house is not tight and some of the screens on the windows need attention.  There are plenty of mosquitos in the house.  Each morning we spray the areas where they like to spend the day.
        On our 2^nd day here we went shopping and insecticide was on our list.  The insecticide of choice in Congo is called Rambo.  We couldn’t find it here in Thies so we had to choose between Cobra, Oro, Hit, Yotox, Super Max, Top Budget, Megar, Catch, Baygon, Attack and Raid (the word is that Attack is the best).  We tried Oro.  It doesn’t drop the mosquitos in mid- flight like Rambo.
        In the developing world we don’t have all the pesky EPA laws.  Who knows what Rambo has in it?  There is a product that is even more powerful, but when you spray it you can instantly taste the chemicals in your mouth.  I stopped buying that one.
        I am told that DDT is still available out here under a secret trade name.  The safari outfits use it to treat hides to avoid insect damage.  There is a strong lobby in Kenya for reinstating the use of DDT as part of their program to prevent malaria.  Western development organizations tend to be against this idea for environmental reasons.  They promote bed nets treated with deltamethrin and other insecticides and projects to drain mosquito breeding grounds.  Maybe someday there will be a vaccine against malaria, but in the meantime, we are going to buy some “Attack”.