Hurricane Ike Series - Disease Vector

Posted by Eric Fry (Houston, TX, United States) on 25 September 2008 in Animal & Insect.

With anywhere from 8" to 12" of rain in the area (I had 10" at my house) from Hurricane Ike, there has been an explosion in the mosquito population. This Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito is the most common one here, and is the native species, but we also have Aedes aegypti and the Asian Tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus. With St. Louis Encephalitis and West Nile Virus present in local mosquito populations, the risk of disease outbreak has increased exponentially. To combat this risk, Harris County is beginning aerial spraying of the entire county with Malathion and other insecticides. The number of mosquitoes is staggering; so many that even a liberal spraying of DEET based repellent doesn't keep one safe from bites.

I've still got several itchy bites as I post this...

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you all have a great day,
Eric

Check out the photography of a friend of mine outside of Aminus3:
Brian Dykes' Blue Echoes Photography - Beautiful nature and city images from the guy that turned me on to Adobe Lightroom

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