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Source: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/...1/NEWS/5010375
Aggressive new mosquito 'will drive people in'
By ANIKA CLARK
aclark@s-t.com
May 01, 2010 12:00 AM
There are questions about mysterious mosquito behavior and virus transmission that Wayne Andrews would love to be able to answer.
But as temperatures rise, the Bristol County Mosquito Control Project superintendent is focused on a more urgent matter: a white-striped mosquito menace that was reported last year in New Bedford for only the second time in the state's history.
"My concerns right now are monitoring for EEE and monitoring for the Asian tiger mosquito," he said, speaking of the potentially fatal bug-borne disease and an aggressive, exotic species first reported in New Bedford in 2000.
Its second official Bay State appearance was last year, in the same general area, south of Interstate 195 in New Bedford.
"This is not a mosquito we want up here," said Andrews, who described how he will use traps geared toward the species in this summer's surveillance. "We're concerned that it probably is south of 195 in Dartmouth and Fairhaven and Westport and Fall River."
Although it is yet to be seen whether the mosquito, which reaches adulthood in the summer, will make a repeat appearance in the Bay State, he said, "I bet you we'll find it."
According to the University of California, Riverside, the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) was introduced to the United States in the 1980s through shipments of tires from Asia.
It is "a true human feeder," Andrews said. "It's going to bite, bite, bite..."
Aggressive new mosquito 'will drive people in'
By ANIKA CLARK
aclark@s-t.com
May 01, 2010 12:00 AM
There are questions about mysterious mosquito behavior and virus transmission that Wayne Andrews would love to be able to answer.
But as temperatures rise, the Bristol County Mosquito Control Project superintendent is focused on a more urgent matter: a white-striped mosquito menace that was reported last year in New Bedford for only the second time in the state's history.
"My concerns right now are monitoring for EEE and monitoring for the Asian tiger mosquito," he said, speaking of the potentially fatal bug-borne disease and an aggressive, exotic species first reported in New Bedford in 2000.
Its second official Bay State appearance was last year, in the same general area, south of Interstate 195 in New Bedford.
"This is not a mosquito we want up here," said Andrews, who described how he will use traps geared toward the species in this summer's surveillance. "We're concerned that it probably is south of 195 in Dartmouth and Fairhaven and Westport and Fall River."
Although it is yet to be seen whether the mosquito, which reaches adulthood in the summer, will make a repeat appearance in the Bay State, he said, "I bet you we'll find it."
According to the University of California, Riverside, the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) was introduced to the United States in the 1980s through shipments of tires from Asia.
It is "a true human feeder," Andrews said. "It's going to bite, bite, bite..."