Why Scary Mosquitoes Are Coming To Your Neighborhood

Diseases spread by infected mosquitoes are a growing problem. Unfortunately, some areas of the United States are potentially excellent breeding grounds for mosquitoes able to bestow illnesses like West Nile fever and chikungunya fever. The problem: Our environment can hamper the mosquito immune system, making these critters more vulnerable to the viruses they pass on to humans.

According to Virginia Tech scientists, mosquitoes born in cooler temperatures, like those in the northern U.S., have weaker immune systems.

“Our data offers a plausible hypothesis for how changes in weather influence the transmission of these diseases and will likely continue to do so in the future,” says researcher Kevin Myles.

“Mosquitoes like to breed and lay their eggs in dark, cool places because that means the water will last longer,” adds researcher Zach Adelman. “They don’t lay their eggs in sunny spots because that will dry the water out in a day or two. Although this has been known of some time, we are just learning about its potential effects on the mosquito immune response. Hopefully, this information can be used to build better models that more correctly predict when we’ll have disease transmission.”

In any case, disease spread by mosquitoes is on the rise. The rate of transmission has increased with outbreaks occurring in unexpected places: West Nile virus arrived in New York in 1999, and chikungunya virus began to spread in Italy and France in 2007 and 2010.