Super aggressive new mosquito in SE USA

Has anyone in the SE USA, especially those of you in South Carolina, noticed a new type of mosquito around of late?

For the last month or so I have been seeing a black bodied, silver striped, piercer shaped wing mosquito all over the place. They are particularly aggressive, much more so than your typical mosquito. They bite multiple times and seem unfazed by my swinging hands, cigarette smoke, and rubbing alcohol.

Well I did some research and found that they are called the Asian Tiger Mosquito. They are known as carriers of viruses and diseases, especially West Nile Virus and Dengue Fever.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/39c1ff5dd9ca.jpg[/atsimg]

WIKI

CDC

reply to post by vimanarider


Common in Florida. Mean little B*stards!

I have always called them Tiger Mosquitoes because of their stripes and mean bite!!

I have in-laws in Alaska, inside the Arctic Circle and they laugh at these and say they are nothing. Supposedly they have mosquitoes up there that can bite through a coat!! They have to be brutal to survive in that climate, and I didn't even know that mosquitoes could survive in the cold, but apparently our little Tiger Mosquitoes are not the baddest on the block?!?

Edit: Whoops! I just now went back and read the Wiki link! I guess they really are "Tiger' mosquitoes!

[edit on 25-8-2010 by getreadyalready]

reply to post by getreadyalready


www.alaskatrekker.com...

Alaska's mosquito population is the stuff of legend.

Mosquitos are more than a nuisance in the summer in the north country; they are a genuine problem. Be vigilant. Keep your windows rolled up, enter and exit the vehicle quickly and close the doors, or dozens of the little devils will enter in a minute. Don't park near water for picnics or overnight, if possible. Beware of walking into the shade.

There are some pictures at another site that are obvious parodies, but they give you an idea of how people feel about the mosquitoes up there!







[edit on 25-8-2010 by getreadyalready]

Thanks for the heads up. I always have bad mosquito population where I am. My neighbor says she spends about 100 dollars a month on repellent alone.

I use an electric mosquito racket when I go outside to sit for awhile.

I also use a homemade preparation that works well but does need to be re-applied every few hours. I use dried catnip and rosemary simmered in oil and steeped for about 24 hours. I strain out the herb and add a little melted beeswax to the oil extract while it's warm. Since all the ingredients are edible, I don't worry about putting them on my skin or my face.

Sometimes when the mosquitoes are really bad (I live near woods and swamp) I use a net over my head if I am working outside.

I also use BT "donuts" in open drainage ditches close by and I have screens on my rain barrels.

Another thing I do is pile sticks and brush for small smoke fires...especially camphor wood. Mosquitoes seem to hate camphor! Green wood and small fresh fallen twigs after storms usually smoke well.


I will get out my microscope and be on the lookout for this particular mosquito.

I do wonder though if outdoor livestock, esp. chickens and ducks, would be the first early warning signs of these diseases in the area.

These are very agressive mosquitos.

I told him I didn't want a drink, and he kept insisting, over and over again, just one, just one drink.

Then I told him I wanted to go home, but he said just stay a little while longer.

I kept trying to say no, really I did, I guess it was the ligour that eventually wore me down.

Before I knew it he had penetrated me!

I bled, I cried, but that wasn't the worst of it.

He never writes, he never calls!

I never want to see him again. Good luck OP don't count on him sticking around.

reply to post by Alethea


Lowes has a $300 propane system that heats up to 98.6 degrees, mimics a heartbeat, expels CO2, and uses an attractant. Then it has a little suction fan that grabs them and dehydrates them overnight to dust! It is supposed to control an entire acre of mosquitoes. I got about a 1/2 gallon of mosquitoes out of mine every day or so!!

There is also a cheaper $40 walmart electric version with a zapper. It works surprisingly well for a month or two, but then the UV lights lose their "sexual attraction." Kind of like old porn. You have to keep replacing the lights to keep getting good mosquito deaths.

The Propane version is well worth the money!

@ Proto
You are sick Brother!!

North West baby! Woot I think got got bit maybe 2 times this year

2nd line

Originally posted by getreadyalready
It works surprisingly well for a month or two, but then the UV lights lose their "sexual attraction." Kind of like old porn.

Classic.

That line made all the bites worth while.

maybe they're the new GM mosquitoes.

But a new study, led by Mauro Marrelli, of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, reversed this position. The GM mosquitoes express a protein called SM1 that blocks malaria infection, and a gene that makes their eyes glow red or green, allowing them to be easily distinguished from wild insects.

A different approach has been adopted by a British team, led by Andrea Cristiani, of Imperial College, London. His team has developed a GM mosquito in which the males have fluorescent testicles, allowing them to be easily identified and sterilised. The goal is to introduce large numbers of sterile males, which would mate with normal females, reducing the number of eggs laid, and thus of malaria mosquitoes. As the mosquitoes are sterile, they would not transmit transferred genes into wild populations.

www.timesonline.co.uk...

it doesnt say anything about the GM mosquitoes being more aggressive, but if i had red eyes and glowing testicles im sure that would change me a bit for the worst

reply to post by tweakedvisions


Males don't bite.

Only females bite, so there is no danger of a red-eyed glowing balled Alaskan Mosquito bird coming for you!

That sounds like a B horror flick! Set it in Seattle where the residents don't think they have mosquitoes, and put a 5 lb Genetically Modified glow in the dark mosquito running rampant and cross-breeding with the local females and Protoplasmic Traveller?!?!

That is a hit!

I haven't spotted them so far and I live in South Carolina. I haven't been outside as much as normal though. I have spotted some mean looking spiders in my backyard though. I was wondering what all the yellow stripes meant. I'll have to get a digital camera and take a pic sometime. I think my neighbor doesn't care if she's breeding mosquitoes. She has a large container right next to my yard that always has water sitting in it. I'm wondering if lizards eat mosquitoes too. I spotted one run into my garage. Hopefully it did not stay in there. It needs to get out there and eat up. I believe I have seen those mosquitoes in years past. It was bone dry here earlier in the summer.

I think those black and white mosquitoes are everywhere in the world.
i know where I'm currently living here in southeast Asia they are ridiculous.

Especially now since it is the rainy season here. In fact I just got over getting dengue fever as of exactly 2 days ago. Going to the doctor for blood tests all because of a single mosquito bite is a pain in the neck. The ones here even bite through your clothes.

By the way proto.......If you read this I LMFAO at your post. Haven't seen it that funny in a long time. ill be sharing it.

I thought all mosquitos were super aggresive?

Speaking of, has anyone seen the laser mosquito threat deterrence system? I'm trying to find the video...

These puppies are spreading across the US.

I had a horrible bout of Dengue fever that made me unable to do much more than moan in bed for about a week. I was miserable.

Skin-So-Soft is an alternative to DEET and is marketed by AVON. While SSS has worked well for me for many years, these mosquitoes were biting me through it, and even though my shirts. Eventually I bought OFF 'deep woods' spray that held a high concentration of DEET. The mosquito bites are more spread out now, but these mosquitoes are still able to bite through the DEET.

A cool and very wet summer has caused a huge explosion in mosquitoes in the midwest.

My biggest anger with the mosquito is that no matter how hardcore, bad ass, ninja like I am, all my attempts to terminate one of the little $%$#rs ends with me only looking stupid.

I swing wildly and even when I think i have locked on to my target she just ........OHHH SO CASUALLY..... avoids my attack. Basically what it amounts to is me being told to just sit still and fulfill my destiny for the little vampire queen whore.

I have to say being made a mosquitoes biotch is the same as being made the US governments Biotch.

Sit still, don't fight back, we are untouchable, just accept it. slluuuurrpppp... that's nice.

Originally posted by getreadyalready


Lowes has a $300 propane system that heats up to 98.6 degrees, mimics a heartbeat, expels CO2, and uses an attractant. Then it has a little suction fan that grabs them and dehydrates them overnight to dust! It is supposed to control an entire acre of mosquitoes. I got about a 1/2 gallon of mosquitoes out of mine every day or so!!

The problem I have found is that the real expense is not in the machine itself, but in having to spend a fortune in the attractant strips every week. It's like a cheap printer that eats you alive in cartridge replacements!

When you consider all the $$ that people spend on harmful chemicals like DEET and liver-damaging products to keep mosquitoes off their pets....the money really adds up. And who are we supporting with all this money? Corporations like Bayer! (check out their reputation sometime!)

WARNING: There is a product called Advantix (drops) which is used to keep mosquitoes off your dog. What many people do not know is that this product is very dangerous and could be deadly if you have a cat around. If the cat comes in contact with the dog using this product, the cat can have a serious toxic reaction.

It seems to me that this propane machine might really be a viable, eco-friendly solution in the long run and much less hazardous than using poisons on your animals and your body. Not to mention the medical bills if you get really sick from any mosquito transmitted diseases. But it does need to be more economical so that everyone could have something like this.

Now, if there were only a similar solution for fleas.....

Here in Europe they have landed too, already killed a few of them.

They are quite a bit bigger than the normal mosquitoes here so it makes them easier to spot and squash.

I am not happy about the fact that this species can transfer diseases, I really hate mosquitoes and all the disgusting bloodsucking creatures on this planet.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


You'll be pleased to know it is the female of the species that does the biting. The female needs blood before she can produce eggs.

I'm glad I live in England and dont have to worry about creepy crawlies, worst we get in England is possibly wasps and they dont last long with our summers.

To the OP, I lived in Florida for almost 20 years, and they are very common there. Incredibly aggressive, they don't care what you are smoking or wearing, they are gonna bite ya. Over and over again.

I saw a program on Nat Geo or Discovery a few years back that showed that mosquitoes find you partly by the CO2 you exhale. So smoking just intensifies that and makes them find you even easier.


ETA Proto, that was priceless! Thanks for that laugh!

[edit on 26-8-2010 by Ceriddwen]

I haven't seen any mosquitos like this where I'm at... yet... and I hope I don't!

I'm in Florida and I've been biten SO many times not only by mosquitos but by noseeums, and in my opinion the freakin' noseeums are the worst but I worry more about mosquitos.

My sister contracted West Nile Virus, awful, awful... it resulted in her having neurological damage.... ergo, my profile listed mosquitos as things I HATE!