Uninhabited Images
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
I'm going with the new Caspian Green template to show my support for our Aminus3 photobloggers in Iran. Many of them have been very courageous in bringing us photos from Iran during these uncertain times there; they deserve and need your support, too.
Check out the photography of a couple of my friends outside of Aminus3:
Brian Dykes' Blue Echoes Photography - Beautiful nature and city images from the guy that turned me on to Adobe Lightroom
DougOrama's Sports and Concert Photography - I wish I could take photos like DougO's...
Monique from Koh Samui, Thailand
I kill lots of Asian tigers ;) every day and sometimes I see the big ones like you've captured! You did a great job, very beautiful macro with lovely colors and I like that he's interested in flowers and not in blood ;)
25 Sep 2008 5:14am
@Monique: Those Asian Tigers hurt when they hit you! The others just itch after a while, but the Tigers feel like getting stuck with a needle.
Kylie Greenan from Richmond, Australia
I can't believe the size of this bloke he is HUGE, your bites must be the size of mini mountains??? I love the colours in this image, very vibrant and wonderful bokeh!
25 Sep 2008 6:56am
@Kylie Greenan: He's fairly large for a mosquito, but he's still pretty small. The flower is less than 1/2 inch across!
Maxine from Rangiora, New Zealand
brilliant image and scary story- its all in the luck of the BITE !!!
25 Sep 2008 7:31am
Dimitrios from ATHENS, Greece
cool shot, sorry about the trouble they bring to your area.
25 Sep 2008 8:15am
Earnest from Oklahoma, United States
Dang it, Eric. I've been trying to get that flower for a couple of years and you post one with a mosquito on it. They are bad here too and bold... That's Carolina Elephants Foot it is feeding on and its a harmless male, not a blood sucker or he wouldn't be feeding there. Of course he could also be responsible for several thousand offspring too. I have the flower coming up in a few days but not as well-focused as your.
25 Sep 2008 3:46pm
@Earnest: If you had let me know you were coming to town, you could have come to my house and taken all the photos you'd ever want of it! A corner of my backyard is full it. Is it rare?
I should have mentioned that was a male, but in my book, they all need to die!
Marion from Nanaimo, BC, Canada
He looks like he is waving you away. He is huge. What a great capture. I don't think I have even seen a misquito this year. It sounds like you have hoards of them. You need another wind to blow them away but not Ike's strength.
25 Sep 2008 7:22pm
Linerberry from Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand
Incredible shot Eric!! Thanks for the info too...I'm having a scratch at the thought of it. I react really badly to mosi bites so they make me shiver with fear.
26 Sep 2008 5:08am
Jean-Michel from BRUSSELS, Belgium
Ouch ! I hope you did manage all those troubles, very sade and scary story !
But it will not stop my enthousiasm when I see such a perfect image of one of those little infected vampires !
Super close up !
See you and good courage! :-))
28 Sep 2008 3:47pm
wardy from Houston, United States
And I can testify that this photo is actual size!!! ;-)
29 Sep 2008 2:17pm
dj.tigersprout from San Bruno, CA, United States
wow he is a big one! ;) great shot -- beautiful macro -- and i have never seen them interested in anything but blood! very cool indeed! maybe we can breed them to like nectar! ;)
29 Sep 2008 6:52pm
#gallery c0200a2edcd6807d8e1cc22d359ccd9d
#gallery a1993498622d515397a6c16419f8f38d
#gallery a8b5741c8140f085c5f7a75fca211529
Nikon COOLPIX P80
1/110 second
F/4.5
ISO 64
56 mm (35mm equiv.)