“The most annoying thing right now is the tiger mosquito, which is more urban and bites during the day”, estimated Wednesday, October 26 on franceinfo Didier Fontenille, medical entomologist and director of research at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD) in Montpellier. The researcher observes that there is “no more mosquitoes” because of “mild temperatures” observed in October. His advice: avoid creating “water collection” like the “flower pots, flower vases, canisters, water collectors”.
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franceinfo: Are there more mosquitoes this fall?
Didier Fontenille: So there are two answers. There are more mosquitoes because the tiger mosquito called “Aedes albopictus” has continued to expand in France, thus colonizing more areas. In addition, due to the mild temperatures, mosquitoes die less and remain alive and active longer. There are about 60 different mosquitoes, but in fact, those which bother man, there are four or five which are either in town or in the country, and which bite day and night. And the most annoying currently is the tiger mosquito, “Aedes albopictus”, rather urban and which bites more during the day. It is very easily recognized because it is small, black and white. And there aren’t many daytime biting mosquitoes in town.
How can this presence of tiger mosquitoes, and mosquitoes more widely, be explained?
The mild temperature keeps the females alive.
“It should be remembered that only females bite when taking blood. They can live for about thirty days and if the climate and temperature are mild, they can reach 40 days.”
Didier Fontenille, medical entomologistat franceinfo
Thus, temperatures help mosquitoes survive. And the second thing is that these mosquitoes, they also need collections of water to lay their eggs. There have been rains, there is always watering in the gardens because of the temperature and therefore suddenly there is also water for the females. Finally, mosquitoes survive if they have enough to eat and take blood. And that is not lacking in town since blood is essentially humans.
What advice can you give to escape mosquitoes?
The first thing is that the mosquito needs water to lay its eggs. And most of the time, in the city, these collections of water are created by men, either by individuals in their apartment or their garden with saucers, flowerpots, vases of flowers, cans, water collectors. ‘water. At the collective level, there are also water collections that need to be cleaned, for example rainwater collectors. This should be limited as much as possible. When this is not possible, the best way to escape is to use either skin repellents or so-called spatial repellents, for example twists on the outside or small pads that are put on in outlets inside homes. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing. And then, researchers are trying to develop new strategies that would be non-polluting and easier to implement, such as traps for mass trapping of mosquitoes or sterile insect techniques.