Nice summary and glad you picked up on Dengue. Really becoming worrisome and thanks to climate change, the tropics are coming to the subtropics.
I would like to mention about the fogging, I remember the trucks fogging the neighborhoods with DDT. This helped some but really gave rise to resistant little buggers.
We should think about the ecological niche that mossies play in the ecosystem. A lot of species depend on this trophic level.
I know you follow the infectious disease news, and dengue in particular. Sounds really horrible to suffer "break bone fever." So interesting about the mosquitofish, and seems like we always get in trouble with reductionist ecological hacking projects. Although I wouldn't mind a few of those fish in a little pond if I had one. But even then, as they say in Jurassic Park - Life finds a way.
Roygee looks fierce I agree! Thanks for this great run down. I’ve been afraid of some of the repellents, but agree that there is a real risk of infections like WNV. Local control around ones house makes sense, and I’m going for it with the dunks. Online testimony seems to confirm they really help! Keep you posted for sure. Good luck.
Very good, Grant! I will let the betta know you were impressed, too. I received an email response from a reader who also reports the dunks work, so here goes nothing. Do let me know if you notice more than a placebo response in terms of mosquito problems! They seem to hover outside my front door, knowing that it will eventually swing open. Going to have to paint it khaki I suppose.
Wow, I have never seen that mosquito. In Africa the mosquito traps are literally black and medium blue. Perhaps different mosquitos have different color preferences.
They do - and there was a study about this that I was tempted to drop in to this post, but it got too long already! It confirmed what the military and many other knew from experience:
" In the early 1900s, khaki pants were urged for tropical environments in part because they were unseductive to mosquitoes, and the US military modified its uniform from dark to light blue dress shirts to lessen the attraction of mosquitoes."
Hope that works! Clothing so much better than repellents. And yes WNV is ubiquitous and flies under the radar. Just ordered some blood serologies on a patient with a weird syndrome including headache malaise and dizziness yesterday. Happy yard work and hope to visit western Oregon someday, the coast especially looks beautiful!
CDD EID has been publishing a slow but steady line of dengue articles. Also Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever. Lots and lots of insect vector nasty stuff out there. What are some grocery store brands that have picaridin in them?
I agree, Michael, and my wife just showed me an article about "kissing bugs" that carry Trypanosoma cruzi (the cause of nasty Chagas disease) that have been found as far north as Delaware, although southern states like Texas already have this problem:
Not sure about brands except that the NYT article liked the one I linked to from Sawyer, as well as a product made by a company called Ready Ranger. Looks like better known brands such as OFF also sell products with picaridin as the active repellent, just need to check ingredient lists I suppose. Crimean-Congo HF sounds terrible. I know they are trying to get away from naming new scourges after people and places... poor Crimea right now, too.
Nice summary and glad you picked up on Dengue. Really becoming worrisome and thanks to climate change, the tropics are coming to the subtropics.
I would like to mention about the fogging, I remember the trucks fogging the neighborhoods with DDT. This helped some but really gave rise to resistant little buggers.
We should think about the ecological niche that mossies play in the ecosystem. A lot of species depend on this trophic level.
You might find this interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquitofish
Another eco-clusterfuck
I know you follow the infectious disease news, and dengue in particular. Sounds really horrible to suffer "break bone fever." So interesting about the mosquitofish, and seems like we always get in trouble with reductionist ecological hacking projects. Although I wouldn't mind a few of those fish in a little pond if I had one. But even then, as they say in Jurassic Park - Life finds a way.
Roygee looks fierce I agree! Thanks for this great run down. I’ve been afraid of some of the repellents, but agree that there is a real risk of infections like WNV. Local control around ones house makes sense, and I’m going for it with the dunks. Online testimony seems to confirm they really help! Keep you posted for sure. Good luck.
Very good, Grant! I will let the betta know you were impressed, too. I received an email response from a reader who also reports the dunks work, so here goes nothing. Do let me know if you notice more than a placebo response in terms of mosquito problems! They seem to hover outside my front door, knowing that it will eventually swing open. Going to have to paint it khaki I suppose.
Wow, I have never seen that mosquito. In Africa the mosquito traps are literally black and medium blue. Perhaps different mosquitos have different color preferences.
They do - and there was a study about this that I was tempted to drop in to this post, but it got too long already! It confirmed what the military and many other knew from experience:
" In the early 1900s, khaki pants were urged for tropical environments in part because they were unseductive to mosquitoes, and the US military modified its uniform from dark to light blue dress shirts to lessen the attraction of mosquitoes."
I'm working in the yard this morning wearing a khaki long sleeve shirt! Can't be too safe especially since there's lots of WNV here in western Oregon.
Hope that works! Clothing so much better than repellents. And yes WNV is ubiquitous and flies under the radar. Just ordered some blood serologies on a patient with a weird syndrome including headache malaise and dizziness yesterday. Happy yard work and hope to visit western Oregon someday, the coast especially looks beautiful!
CDD EID has been publishing a slow but steady line of dengue articles. Also Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever. Lots and lots of insect vector nasty stuff out there. What are some grocery store brands that have picaridin in them?
I agree, Michael, and my wife just showed me an article about "kissing bugs" that carry Trypanosoma cruzi (the cause of nasty Chagas disease) that have been found as far north as Delaware, although southern states like Texas already have this problem:
https://www.dshs.texas.gov/sites/default/files/IDCU/disease/chagas/UT_Health_Kissing_Bug_Chagas_Guide-061918.pdf
Not sure about brands except that the NYT article liked the one I linked to from Sawyer, as well as a product made by a company called Ready Ranger. Looks like better known brands such as OFF also sell products with picaridin as the active repellent, just need to check ingredient lists I suppose. Crimean-Congo HF sounds terrible. I know they are trying to get away from naming new scourges after people and places... poor Crimea right now, too.