Spring showers brings flowers…and mosquitoes…
We all enjoy a nice day outdoors during the warmer months but so do the mosquitoes. Mosquitoes thrive in warmer temperatures and as the year goes by it seems like more and more are out to get you. This is why alot of us enjoy the cooler months when we can get outside and not get eaten alive.
The biting pest becomes a distant memory and all the mosquitoes die off in winter……right?!?
Well actually no.
The thought that all mosquitoes die off during the winter months and stay away till hotter months is a misconception. Mosquitoes actually hibernate during the winter like many other insects, how they do this depends on the species type. The main biting culprit here in Northern Virginia is the Aedes Albopictus or more commonly known as the Asian Tiger Mosquito. This mosquito is an annoyance and a major carrier for diseases such as yellow fever virus, dengue fever, chikungunya fever and Usutu virus.
So how do they survive the winter??
The Asian tiger mosquito female once fertilized by a male only needs one blood meal to reproduce eggs. That means getting a bite of you, your pet, or the local wildlife to be able to produce. However as daylight decreases in the fall the Asian tiger mosquito goes from laying directly developing eggs to diapause eggs. These diapause eggs are much more hardy and have more resources for the egg to survive the winter, including lipids that insulate the embryo from cold. The metabolism of the embryo slows down and the embryo uses it’s resources on a longer period of time. Leaf debris, snow and ice also help keep the egg insulated during the winter. Even still not all the eggs survive, but the sheer numbers help the species as whole to survive, which by summer the population rebounds. Once temperatures reach 50 degrees consistently the eggs hatch and the mosquito season begins.
You can help keep the numbers down in your yard by removing leaf litter, preventing water pooling up near your house, and removing any debris that can hold water for long periods of time. We also recommend treating your yard for mosquitoes by the beginning of end of March/beginning of April and finishing treatments late October.
Contact us today about our mosquito control program and take back your yard!!