Scotland’s climate hasn’t historically been supportive to large mosquito populations, as it tends to be cooler. But now, scientists have discovered widespread populations of mosquitoes around Scotland, and they fear warming temperatures could lead to increasing public health risks from mosquito-borne diseases. Scientists at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Virus Research found 16 different […]
The first three cases of Zika that started in southern France have been confirmed and experts are sounding the alarm that the climate crisis may cause more cases to spread across the continent, as CNN reported. The European Centers for Disease Control reported that all three cases were in Hyères, a French Riviera town. In […]
By Natalie Kofler, Françoise Baylis, Graham Dellaire, Landon J Getz Every year, around one million people die of mosquito-borne diseases according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This is why mosquitoes are considered one of the deadliest living creatures on the planet — not because they are lethal themselves, but because many of the viruses […]
By Marlene Cimons For nearly a century, scientists thought that malaria could only spread in places where it is really hot. That’s because malaria is spread by a tiny parasite that infects mosquitoes, which then infect humans — and this parasite loves warm weather. In warmer climates, the parasite grows quickly inside the mosquito’s body. […]
If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise until 2080, dengue fever could spread through much of the southeastern U.S. by 2050. That’s one of the findings in a study published in Nature Microbiology Monday on the potential spread of the mosquito-borne disease, which currently kills around 10,000 people per year and sickens 100 million. The […]
Flooding from Hurricane Florence has activated dormant “gallnipper” (Psorophora ciliata) eggs, among others, leading to the hatching of billions of unusually large mosquitoes. Gallnippers lay their eggs in moist, low-elevation areas, where heavy rains or flooding trigger eventual hatching. In less than a week, larvae grow to adult size, which is about three times that […]
Arachnophobes beware. A shoreline by the Greek town of Aitoliko has been swamped by a mass of mating spiders and 1,000 feet of their cobwebs. Earlier this week, a local named Giannis Giannakopoulos uploaded a YouTube video and posted several pictures of the spectacle on his Facebook page, showing shrubs, palm fronds and other greenery […]
Microplastics, which get gobbled up by whales, deep-sea fish and plankton, have also turned up in the bodies of mosquitoes, scientists have revealed. The research, published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters, is the first to show that bits of plastic can be transferred between a mosquito’s life stages that use different habitats. For the […]
By Carla Burns Experts predict mosquito and tick bites and subsequent infections will continue to rise as warmer climates expand insect habitats and populations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that pest-borne diseases are “a large and growing public health problem in the United States.” Cases of diseases from mosquito, tick and flea […]
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