Mosquitos are the world's leading carrier of deadly diseases and they kill more than anything else. The populations of mosquitos in America have grown tenfold in the last fifty years and most aren't carriers of anything dangerous but some definitely are with the mosquito carrier for Zika being the worst one yet. (Science Daily: Growing mosquito populations linked to urbanization, DDT's slow decay)
Mosquito populations have increased as much as ten-fold over the past five decades in New York, New Jersey, and California, according to long-term datasets from mosquito monitoring programs. The number of mosquito species in these areas increased two- to four-fold in the same period.
"At first glance, recent increases in mosquito populations appear to be linked to rising temperatures from climate change, but careful analyses of data over the past century show that it's actually recovery from the effects of DDT," said corresponding author Marm Kilpatrick, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz.
More than a billion pounds (600 million kilograms) of DDT were used in the United States from the 1940s through the early 1970s. Its use was curtailed in the 1960s and finally banned in the United States in 1972 because of adverse environmental effects, especially on birds and other wildlife, as well as potential human health risks. Yet DDT was still detectable in soil cores as recently as 2000 in New York state, where DDT use was much higher than in New Jersey and California.
Average annual temperatures showed surprisingly little correlation with mosquito population trends. "Precipitation was more important than temperature, but land use was more important than either of those factors," Kilpatrick said. "The long-term impacts of land use changes on ecosystems are sometimes underappreciated."
Urbanization is an important factor because it changes the species composition in an area, favoring the types of mosquitoes that live near and feed on people, such as Aedes aegypti, and causing other species to decline, such as those adapted to wetlands and other natural habitats.
Mosquito populations have increased as much as ten-fold over the past five decades in New York, New Jersey, and California, according to long-term datasets from mosquito monitoring programs. The number of mosquito species in these areas increased two- to four-fold in the same period.
- Science Daily
The numbers of the mosquitos aren't so terrible so long as they're just the native mosquitos but, as you see above, the number of species is increasing. Maybe you're expecting climate change to be tagged with that.
- Science Daily
Here's another extract to describe the damage by the DDT.
- Science Daily
We have seen the same thing with insecticides rated a highly likely source of the problem which has been killing the honey bees. Perhaps ironically, Cuba does not have this problem and specifically because of America's embargo. They could not obtain American pesticides and, thus, switched their farming techniques to organic. They now produce some of the best honey in the world while their bees thrive.
- Science Daily
At first I wasn't sure what type of land use they meant but I read back through the article.
- Science Daily
Ithaka has featured several reports in recent months regarding measures to control mosquitos which may be more successful than the typical spraying. There's a GMO mosquito they wanted to try in Florida but that was denied and I'm not sure if any approval was ever obtained. There's another biological bomb which comes by introducing a natural virus which spreads rapidly through mosquito problems and mating spreads it.
I'm not particularly concerned about IS-IS but mosquitos are a clear and present danger in many parts of the world with the latest tidbit being the speculation is malaria may come to America. Yes, I realize that is fortune telling but I have seen that reference although I have not seen enough of it to be sure of the content.
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