The Sting of a Long Mosquito Biting Season

Megan Meuti is an associate professor of entomology at The Ohio State University who studies the Northern house mosquito, the species most responsible for transmitting the West Nile virus. During a field study in Columbus, Ohio, her team found mosquitoes were still reproductively active and biting until late November, well after the first snow, and found evidence that biting mosquitoes also were active in early March - suggesting the bugs have a longer biting season than expected. After spending winter in a dormant state known as diapause, female mosquitoes begin foraging for blood meals to enable egg production. Some get infected with West Nile virus by feeding on infected birds, and later transmit the virus when they feed on people, horses and other mammals. Meuti’s lab has also found that urban light pollution may disrupt the winter dormancy period. This could be good news if it turns out the pests aren’t able to adequately fatten up before diapause, and therefore may not survive the winter. But light pollution’s effect could be bad news if it simply delays the mosquitoes’ dormancy period - leading the bugs to bite humans and animals longer into the fall, when Northern house mosquitoes are most likely to be infected with West Nile virus. Meuti shares tips to protect ourselves from mosquitoes: Don’t let water collect in the yard; if enjoying the outdoors, go inside before dusk or keep a fan blowing nearby; and apply repellent - either DEET, the gold standard, or natural products such as picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus.
Study on seasonal mosquito activity published in Parasites & Vectors: parasitesandvectors.biomedcen...
More info on the effects of light pollution: news.osu.edu/light-pollution-...
Access:
We are working on captioning our videos as soon as possible. If you notice this video has not been captioned three business days after it has been posted, please email us at [e-mail].