Toulouse. But why the hell are there so many mosquitoes this October?
Through Gabriel Kenedi
Published on
As mid-October has passed, mosquitoes – and especially tiger mosquito – are still present in force at Toulouse.
“Why are there so many mosquitoes? ”
To the point that some readers and Internet users, no doubt tired of getting bitten all the time, wonder if the presence of these little animals in such large numbers is normal at this time of year.
There are still mosquitoes in Toulouse 😤😬 pic.twitter.com/HP9sKZsogG
– Tumiza (@tumiza) October 16, 2021
we are in OCTOBER toulouse pk there are still as many mosquitoes ?????? I get screwed
– oliver (@ lSTHERESOMEB0DY) October 15, 2021
Hey you have supersonic mosquitoes in Toulouse
– Ant Brion (@LolitaFourmi) 10 October 2021
three days in Toulouse and I have more than ten mosquito / spider bites? on the body I cry
– dilucian hate club (@taenysclub) October 17, 2021
September, peak of the tiger mosquito presence
Contacted by Toulouse news, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) recalls that the “regulatory” surveillance of the tiger mosquito is effective between 1uh May and November 30, “seasonality which is related to the period when Aedes albopictus is able to live in adult form and therefore transmit viruses of the type chikungunya, dengue u Zika“.
And according to the ARS, if the mosquitoes remain numerous in this month of October, the worst seems to be behind us :
“The density of mosquitoes is at its maximum in September and still remains high in October. The alternation of rain, dew and sometimes still very sunny days are indeed always conducive to the development of this mosquito. The density should decrease in the next few days. The temperature is a factor in the mosquito’s development but also the photoperiod (day length). In November, the first frosts and the sharp reduction in day length will eventually get the better of mosquitoes tigers 2021 “”.
38 new settlements colonized
While waiting for the winter break, the tiger mosquito continues its inexorable expansion in the Haute-Garonne territory.
In 2021 alone, the ARS identifies “ 38 new settlements colonized ” at this hour. In total, the tiger mosquito – detected for the first time in the department in 2012 in the town of Toulouse – is present in 226 communes of Haute-Garonne.
7 cases of dengue fever, a declining number
On the other hand, the year 2021 is particularly calm concerning epidemiological surveillance: “Only 7 imported cases of dengue (due to infections during travel, editor’s note) have been identified ”in Haute-Garonne in 2021, reports the ARS to Toulouse news.
For comparison, there had been more than 40 cases imported in 2020, and 58 in 2019. “The Covid-19 pandemic explains this low import of arboviruses on our territory, people having traveled less outside the national territory”, further specifies the regional health agency.
Following the detection of these seven cases of dengue, the ARS ordered its operator, the company Altopictus, “To investigate all of these cases”. In good, 3 vector control operations (or in other words targeted mosquito control) were carried out in Toulouse in May, at Cornebarrieu in June and carbon.
Small things to do this winter
If the density of tiger mosquitoes should therefore decrease in the coming days, the fall will not disappear the species for all that.
“Females take advantage of the fall period to prepare for the next season and thereby anchor the survival of the species. Concretely, half of the eggs laid by the females currently hatch now, the other half will remain in egg form (resistant to the winter period) for hatching at the end of next spring, when the conditions ‘water, temperature, light’ will be. optimal ”, explains the ARS, which adds:
“It is therefore advisable to take advantage of the winter period to take care of your exterior in to clean (gutters, gutters, gutters, exterior drainage drains), tidy (any object, tool, game, capable of retaining water), throwing (construction waste), emptying (cups, bowls, tarpaulins for garden furniture, rain gauges, etc.) and in maintaining (swimming pools, ornamental ponds, roof terraces and terraces on plots) ”.
So many small gestures that will reduce the presence of the tiger mosquito next spring.
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