Mosquito

Mosquitos The summer of 2015 was a particulary bad year, infested with mosquitoes in the Sierra and in other parts of Altea. Mosquitoes can make life unpleasant. Constantly having to track down that high-pitched whine can be a nusance, and when you’ve found the culprit there always seems to be another one waiting nearby. So why is your home or business particularly attractive to mosquitoes and how can you be sure of mosquito identification? Mosquitoes often make that all-too-familiar high pitched whine. Bites are an obvious result, ranging from mildly irritating to intensely inflamed with swelling. Only the female mosquito bites humans, the males will feed off nectar and other sweet things. The red bumps and itching caused by a mosquito bite are caused by an allergic reaction to the mosquito's saliva. The adults are attracted to standing water including water butts, water trays from house plants and water bowls, where they lay their eggs. You might spot them walking upside down on ceilings and glass surfaces. Mosquitoes travel a long way so if there’s standing water within a two kilometers of your home it may be the source of your problems. Mosquitoes might be attracted to your lawn or shrubbery, if it is well watered. Mosquitoes get a bad press, but to be honest they deserve it. There are few things more annoying when you’re trying to get to sleep than the high-pitched whine of mosquitoes in your room. You just know that they will bite you at some point in the night. Mosquitoes can be a real nuisance, leaving you with nasty itchy bites. Those bites all come from the female. The male mosquito prefers to feed on nectar and other sweet things. How do you get rid of mosquitoes in your home for good? If the infestation is small then the first thing you should try proprietary insecticides that can be found in most shops and stores. These are highly effective when the problem isn’t too bad, but if it gets worse or keeps coming back the there maybe a water source close by where they are breeding. Search your garden for any standing water. A water tray under a plant pot with a couple of millimeters of water is enough for mosquitos to breed. Any standing water must be eliminated to stop them breeding. Look outside of your property especially at unoccupied premises that has an untreated swimming pool or has a garden that is heavily irrigated with a watering system. This can be a prime source for breeding mosquitos. Unfortunately erradication of mosquitos is not possible since the banning of DDT many years ago, though there is a lot of research into the subject. We can only do what we can to eliminate as much of the mosquitos breeding area as possible and that is standing water. There are many different types of mosquito but generally in Spain they are all under a single name as a Black Mosquito with the exception of the Tiger mosquito.

Black Mosquitos

Tiger Mosquitos

The Valencian Generalitat has produced information documents on mosquitoes which can be read here.

American Mosquito Control Association