SWARMS OF SUPERSIZE MOSQUITOES BESIEGE NORTH CAROLINA
Source: Wired
AN MOLTENI
SCIENCE
10.04.1807:00 AM
Two weeks ago, Hurricane Florence slammed into the Carolinas, unleashing six months of rain in a matter of hours. In inland Cumberland County, the Cape Fear River rose 40 feet1, inundating Fayetteville with the worst flooding the city has seen since 1945. But as the waters receded and citizens returned to their ruined homes, a new plague was just beginning to descend.
Drive through Fayetteville today and youll pass house after house emptied of belongings, the mud-stained detritus piled high on curbs across the county. But youll have a hard time seeing the storms aftermath through the clouds of monstrous, hyperaggressive mosquitoes spattering across your windshield. Twenty-seven counties in North Carolina, including Cumberland, are in the midst of a mega-mosquito outbreak. On September 26, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper ordered $4 million in relief funds to combat invading swarms of the nickel-sized bloodsuckers, known to scientists as Psorophora ciliata and to everyone else as gallinippers.
Theyre just everywhere, says Tom Turturro, an environmental health program specialist with Cumberland County. The area gets a small amount of gallinipper activity each year during the rainy season, but this has been an especially bad bout. His office has gotten more than 500 calls in the last week. Worried it will hamper clean-up efforts, the county sent out pesticide-spraying trucks this week, and is looking into aerial efforts as well. While not known to transmit human disease, the supersize skeeters are quick to mob any mammal they can find, any time, day or night, and deliver a fearsome bite. Its like somebody shoving a hot poker in your arm, says Turturro. It burns like hell.
All mosquitoes come equipped with serrated mouthparts called maxillae they use to carve through skin. For most species, these structures are so small and sharp that you dont feel much more than a tingle to let you know youve been bitten. But the gallinippers chompers are designed for bigger preyits one of the only species that can pierce cattle hide. Its bite is so deep it sets off nerve cells in the epidermis designed to alert the body to a serious wound. In other words, your body thinks its being stabbed.
Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/north-carolina-fends-off-swarms-of-super-sized-mosquitoes/
theaocp
(4,237 posts)Apologies to the good folks in NC who are suffering. I'm very depressed these days and it's difficult to muster optimism.
alfredo
(60,074 posts)Midnight Writer
(21,767 posts)Iliyah
(25,111 posts)God speed NC!
montanacowboy
(6,089 posts)The parting of the sea?
BigmanPigman
(51,593 posts)I have experienced a gigantic increase in tiny mosquito bites. I have over 50 on my body for over 4 months a year now. I have tried everything to get rid of them...repellents, traps, special light bulbs, etc. This is due to climate change I am sure!
PearliePoo2
(7,768 posts)I am a mosquito magnet and taking these have really helped!
http://www.naturemade.com/vitamins/b-complex#XOHVjsJsewhlF4Pm.97
Apparently mosquitoes don't like the smell of vitamin B that comes out through your sweat and pores.
BigmanPigman
(51,593 posts)That seems to make sense. I think they like garlic.
Thanks!
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)is to put something like Vicks vapor Rub...the mentholated vaseline....on the bites as soon as you can.
It stops the bite from itching and from growing into a big bump.
Been using it for 10 years now on fire ant bites, mosquito bites. pretty sure it would work on chigger bites.
You have to dab it on a few times the first day, then a couple of times the next day when you can feel the bite, but after that, no problem.
Fire ant bites are stopped cold with that stuff, they never develop into that raised acid burn stage, same with mostquito bites...they don't show at all on the skin if you do it soon as you can after a bite.
any decent generic vapo rub will work.
BigmanPigman
(51,593 posts)Jane Austin
(9,199 posts)When it pours here, I get standing water in parts of my yard. I think whatever makes B vitamins smell strong also repels mosquitos.
colorado_ufo
(5,734 posts)I feel for the residents and rescuers, and for all the poor animals! This bad an infestation can kill.
riversedge
(70,223 posts)bdtrppr6
(796 posts)so we've got that goin' for us
Turbineguy
(37,331 posts)if they hadn't warned us about climate change, this would never have happened!
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Aristus
(66,377 posts)Those mosquitoes are really transgender people in disguise, trying to get into cisgender bathrooms!
Don't fall for it!
Pass some anti-mosquito laws!...