Mosquitos infected two people with malaria in Sarasota County in as many months, and half a coop of sentinel chickens near Orlando tested positive for eastern equine encephalitis several weeks ago.
Florida Department of Health has issued mosquito-borne illness alerts for both regions, especially since the summer rainy season in Florida equates with skyrocketing mosquito populations, and it’s just starting.
“Residents in Sarasota and Manatee counties should take precautions, such as wearing long-sleeve shirts and pants, applying bug spray, and avoiding areas with high mosquito populations,” the state health department wrote in a statement. “Especially during sunrise and sunset when mosquitos are most active.”
The tiny mosquito is a big problem in South Florida that is only getting worse.
In addition to the death and illness that even one mosquito in one swarm can cause, the population of mosquitos is growing along with the state’s population of people.
In a state where swamps are commonplace, the sheer number of mosquitos can lead to apathy, which in turn can lead to a lack of awareness of the ways people can protect themselves against bites.
And climate change is sending non-native, invasive mosquito species to North America — specifically Florida — with increasing frequency.
A mosquito transmits diseases to humans through parasites, bacteria, and viruses when it sticks its six-pronged proboscis into a person’s skin for a blood meal and leaves its infected saliva behind.
The number of mosquitos that transmit diseases to humans is small compared to the total number of species. The majority pose little if any risk because they either don’t feed on humans or they lack the ability to transmit pathogens.
But enough do have that capability to make mosquitos the world’s deadliest creature.
Mosquitos love Florida
More people have died by mosquito than by war.
The World Health Organization says mosquitos kill 700,000 people annually. Malaria-spreading mosquitos cause just more than half of those deaths — mostly toddlers and babies in poorer countries — and infect about 219 million people with the parasite.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report about 1,500 cases of malaria resulting in about five deaths in America each year.
Mosquitos that spread the dengue virus infect at least 96 million people globally every year and kill 40,000.
Two people in Miami-Dade County were infected with dengue fever earlier this year, and 88 more have been infected with the virus while outside of the U.S., with the symptoms starting here.
Last year, there were 68 cases of dengue fever from mosquito bites within Florida, 64 in Miami-Dade County, two in Broward County, and one case each in Volusia and Collier counties.
There are about 200 different species of mosquitoes in the country. Each prefers specific habitats, have unique behaviors, and bite different types of animals.
Florida is ground zero for mosquitoes and the diseases they carry in the lower 48 states with more than 80 different species ranging from the tropical and sub-tropical climates of the Keys and South Florida to the more moderate climates in the Panhandle.
“Like humans, mosquitoes live around the world but love to come to Florida,” said Sandra Fisher-Grainger, president of the Florida Mosquito Control Association. “Our highly trained scientists and experts are always working to reduce the risk of mosquito-borne illness, and every resident and visitor can help to limit the risk.”
Climate change and mosquitoes
Climate change is hiking global temperatures, changing wind patterns, causing droughts in some places and floods in others, and hastening the numbers of nonnative mosquitoes arriving in South Florida and other warm climates.
University of Florida agricultural researchers issued a recent report finding that global warming is posing a grave threat to the state’s $400 million strawberry industry, and if the fruit’s growers will have to move further north if they want to stay in the right temperature zone for their crops to flourish — something certain disease-laden mosquitoes already figured out.
That’s what Kristie L. Ebi, a global health and environmental researcher at the University of Washington, predicted seven years ago in a paper titled “Dengue in a changing climate” published in the journal Environmental Research.
“Research indicates that the daily mean temperature and the variation in temperature are two of the most important drivers of the current distribution and incidence of dengue,” she wrote. “Precipitation extremes, whether associated with drought or excess rainfall, also affect mosquito abundance.
“As temperatures continue to rise and precipitation patterns change, opportunities are increasing for further geographical expansion.”
A mosquito known only by its scientific name, Culex lactator, is the latest to establish in the Sunshine State, according to a new study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology by faculty at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
The species made its way across the tropics into Florida, making a permanent home in Lee, Collier, and Miami-Dade counties. It is not yet known if the mosquito carries disease.
Scientists from the research center say they are concerned because of the rate of new mosquitoes arriving in Florida and the potential for them to transmit mosquito-borne diseases.
“That’s particularly true for species from the tropical forests, where mosquitoes are diverse and understudied,” said Lawrence Reeves, lead author of the study.
“Introductions of new mosquito species like this are concerning because many of our greatest mosquito-related challenges are the result of nonnative mosquitoes,” he said. “And in a case like this, it’s difficult to anticipate what to expect when we know so little about a mosquito species.”
‘fight the bite’
National Mosquito Control Awareness Week just ended, and the hope that what is colloquially known as a gallinipper, katynipper, gabber napper, galliwopper, and a granny-nipper will be taken seriously as a threat to human and animal life.
One of the main messages repeated throughout the week was not only can mosquitoes carry diseases that afflict humans, but they also can transmit several diseases and parasites that dogs and horses: heart worms, eastern equine encephalitis, and West Nile virus.
“To fight the bite,” the week’s messaging repeated, wear long-sleeves, use insect repellent with DEET, stay indoors at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active, and empty standing water from anything.
Even a bottle cap of rainwater can breed deadly mosquitoes.
“The risk of transmission to humans has increased,” the state department of health said. “To avoid being bitten by mosquitoes take basic precautions to help limit exposure.”
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a non-profit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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