Amsterdam is going to battle with tiger mosquito: “It’s a huge deal”
The tiger mosquito was spotted in Amsterdam-Zuidoost in September and urban ecologist Remco Daalder hopes that the insect will not gain a foothold in the city. The mug, originally only found in Southeast Asia, is now being diverted in the hopes that it will disappear. The city ecologist applauds that. “Beautiful creature to see and a huge clothes shop, you don’t want that in Amsterdam.”
Near the site, camping Gaasperplas, sent around with developing tips to prevent it from multiplying easily. The letter asks local residents to empty puddles of water in the garden, on the terrace and in the gutter. The tiger mosquito, like other mosquito species, lays its eggs in standing water. The mug larvae also live in that water.
Dengue fever
So the help of the neighborhood is called in to fight the exotic guest. “He has traveled all over the world with us people and he also spends a lot of time in Italy and France,” explains urban ecologist Remco Daalder. “He has a preference for cities, because we are there, a beloved prey animal. He also transmits diseases, but we don’t have to worry about that for the time being.”
The insect can include dengue fever. “It is a very nasty disease, because there are no vaccinations and no advance possible,” said the urban ecologist. “It hurts a lot, so we don’t want that disease here either, but you have to have the virus nearby. The virus is not yet present here in Western Europe. So the mosquito with its stings, not nice, but no virus and therefore no dengue fever yet.”
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Despite the absence of direct danger, every effort is made to ensure that the mug does not stand a chance. The households within a radius of 500 meters from the first location in Zuidoost have received the letter from NVWA and a solution. “I have a good look at what he looks like,” said local resident Raya Woudstra. “I’ve looked in the garden, but I don’t see any. And no larvae in the pond or anything like that.”
planter
She still had one act to promote. In the garden there was still a planter with a layer of standing water. “That is fresh rainwater and the birds come to drink from it,” says Woudstra. “But then I turn around, simple.”
The tiger mosquito has been living in our country since 2005 and has already been spotted near Amsterdam. In 2018, the insect, which is smaller than the regular mug found in the Netherlands, surfaced in Amstelveen.