Incidence of mosquito bites this year.

[Andy Kev.]

This is little more than idle chitchat but it might generate an echo.

I live in the southern half of Germany and the last 3 or 4 summers have been IMHO barbarically hot with grassed areas just turning into big rich tea biscuits every year and staying in that state for months. The water table in most places in the country was about 2 m below proper level. Then in the mild winter just gone it started raining and it's so far been the wettest German summer I've ever experienced. It is civilised actually in the sense of my Lancastrian childhood.

I then thought that we would be plagued by mosquitos because there breeding opportunities would have rocketed but so far this year I've only had three bites. I wonder if this is down to those earlier dry summers i.e. breeding places literally dried up for them, so now they have to make up the population to a decent starting point i.e. there's a lag effect. Have I got this right?

 

[duke]

Not being an entomologist , I think you are correct.

 

[Tiresias]

Gosh, well, I will ask my partner this evening (professor of micro-biology, specialising in malaria). Eggs, larvae and pupae rely on water, and have a fairly predictable life cycle, so it’s plausible.

Are you sure they are mosquitos?

Whatsoever, they breed in still water. Marshes, ditches, that sort of thing. Or at least anophelinae/anopheles/aedes do. Endemic in East Anglia, Norfolk and the Thames estuary once, until they improved drainage. And, yeah, that is a gross simplification. They will adapt. Although surprisingly difficult to keep colonies alive in insectories. As I have been told. Mind you the incompetence of the University's Estates department doesn't help.

 

[AndyP]

Has the Tiger Mosquito found it’s way to Germany yet? Here in Normandy we’ve been told to be vigilant.