Waterlogged US Midwest faces a Monster Mosquito Plague
Pastor Dale Morgan
Waterlogged US Midwest faces a Monster Mosquito Plague*
* Story Highlights
* The floodwater mosquito population has exploded in the Midwest
* The mosquitoes sometimes attack in swarms with a stinging bite
* Over-the-counter antihistamines can help ease bumps and itching
from bites
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- First came the floods -- now the mosquitoes.
An explosion of pesky insects is pestering clean-up crews and just about
anyone venturing outside in the waterlogged Midwest.
In some parts of Iowa there are 20 times the normal number, and in
Chicago up to five times more than usual.
They are very hungry, and sometimes attack in swarms with a stinging bite.
Heavy rain followed by high temperatures creates ideal conditions for
these bugs, whose eggs hatch in the soil after heavy rains. Scientists
call them nuisance mosquitoes. You could call that an understatement.
"About 3 p.m. the bugs come out pretty bad. They're all over the place,"
Bill Driscoll, a flood cleanup worker in Palo, Iowa, said this week.
"We've been burning through the repellent with the volunteers."
In Lisbon, Iowa, about 20 miles east of flood-ravaged Cedar Rapids,
biker Larry Crystal said mosquitoes have made his rides miserable.
Interactive: Protect yourself from mosquito bites »
"Every time I stop to rest at a rest area these buggers just find a way
to bite me all over my neck area between my helmet and jacket," he wrote
on a bikers' blog.
"They seem to be very aggressive. They're even coming into my helmet,
finding any bits of skin," Crystal told The Associated Press. "They're
just going at it."
Some mosquito surveillance traps in Iowa have up to 20 times more
mosquitoes than in recent years, said Lyric Bartholomay, an Iowa State
University insect expert.
For example, last week, 3,674 mosquitoes were counted in Ames-area
traps, compared with 182 for the same week last year, Bartholomay said
Wednesday. Trap quantities are just a tiny snapshot of the true numbers
of mosquitoes flying around.
In Iowa, the main culprit is the Aedes trivittatus, a common nuisance
mosquito with "a voracious appetite and they hurt when they feed on
you," she said.
A relative called Aedes vexans is doing much of the biting in Chicago's
suburbs, hit by recent heavy rains, said Mike Szyska of the Northwest
Mosquito Abatement District.
Mosquito numbers in northwestern suburbs peaked last week at about five
times higher than normal for this time of year, Szyska said.
Complaints and requests for insecticide spraying have the district
"working day and night. We're extremely busy," he said.
Right now there's no evidence of higher than normal numbers of Culex
mosquitoes, more commonly associated with West Nile virus. Several
states have found evidence of West Nile, but only a few cases, which
tend to start occurring later in July.
But health authorities say that could change with drier weather, which
Culex mosquitoes prefer, so they're advising people to take precautions.
Culex mosquitoes breed in stagnant water and sludge in protected areas
like ditches, storm drains or backyard bird baths and discarded tires,
Szyska said.
"One thing that we're warning people with the flooded homes, as they're
gutting them and getting rid of debris, make sure you dispose of that
kind of stuff correctly," said Howard Pue of Missouri's Department of
Public Health.
In the meantime, the explosion of floodwater mosquitoes has left many
people feeling like mosquito magnets. And about 10 percent of the
population actually qualifies, according to entomologist Jerry Butler, a
professor emeritus at the University of Florida.
These are the people who get covered in bites while their porch partners
or biking buddies are left unscathed. Many of them get exaggerated skin
reactions to the bugs -- hard red welts or hives that can itch for days.
Children are more susceptible to these reactions, which can cause a lot
of discomfort but generally are not dangerous, said Dr. Anju Peters, an
allergy specialist at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Her
7-year-old daughter got several bites and broke out in hives last week
inside the family's Chicago home when an outside door was left open for
just a few minutes, Peters said.
Some people have allergies to mosquitoes, developing limited but severe
skin reactions that researchers call "skeeter syndrome." Some can
develop potentially dangerous, widespread reactions including wheezing,
and, rarely, life-threatening throat-swelling and breathing problems.
Research is under way to develop skin tests and treatment for these
allergies using mosquito saliva. Because tests are not widely available,
allergic reactions to mosquitoes are underdiagnosed and undertreated,
according to the University of Manitoba's Dr. Estelle Simons, a leading
mosquito allergy expert.