#mosquitos

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

With summer heat comes pool parties, beach days, backyard cookouts and, of course, swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitos.

But while insect bites have always been a side effect of time spent outdoors, the species doing the biting are changing in historically temperate regions like New England. As climate change makes these areas warmer and wetter, their ranges are expanding—and any diseases they carry come with them. 

In Connecticut, for example, a statewide mosquito monitoring program has detected 54 different species, including invasives like the Asian tiger mosquito, which can transmit potentially serious diseases including dengue and Zika. The mosquito’s historical territory is in hot and humid climates farther south, but it has been moving north. 

Programs like these are key for preventing mosquito-borne diseases, especially as climate change alters the risks. “You really do have to test the mosquitoes to know where the hot spots are for these viruses,” Armstrong said. “By the time we learn about human cases, it’s usually too late to do anything.”

There aren’t statewide monitoring programs in much of the country. Instead, a patchwork quilt of more than 1,000 mosquito control agencies tries to keep ahead of an evolving problem. Most are run at the local level, with a wide range of organizational structures and monitoring practices.

Karelly Melgarejo se sentó en una sala de reuniones de su nueva universidad en Buenos Aires en 2019. Era su primer día. Cuando le preguntaron qué quería tomar, respondió sin dudar: “un tinto”.

En Colombia, eso es un café negro, chico. En esa mesa, en cambio, hubo un segundo de silencio. Nadie entendía cómo alguien podía pedir vino a las ocho de la mañana. “Te podemos ofrecer mate o té”, le dijeron, todavía confundidos.

Karelly Melgarejo sat in a meeting room at her new university in Buenos Aires in 2019. It was her first day. When they asked her what she wanted to drink, she answered without hesitation: “un tinto.”

In Colombia, that means a small black coffee. At that table, however, there was a second of silence. No one understood how someone could ask for wine at eight in the morning. “We can offer you mate or tea,” they told her, still confused.