Blood Suckers

     Hainesport sponsored its semiannual clean up this past Saturday, April 20, 2013.  Residents were encouraged to bring paint, car batteries, up to four tires, propane tanks, furniture, wood, appliances, computers and peripherals, and other household junk to the Broad Street Community Center.  Everything collected was either taken to the dump or properly recycled.
     My friend, Claudia O'Malley, Principal Biologist at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, has reminded me on a couple of occasions that outdoor clean up is a must.  She points out that having junk lying around provides places for water to collect.  Stagnant water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes.  Besides being incredibly annoying, mosquitoes transmit parasites and disease to humans and animals.  The Asian Tiger Mosquito is the baddest of the bad because its preferred habitat is not low, wet areas but areas where humans reside, i.e., back yards.  Unlike other mosquitoes that are active and biting at dawn and dusk, the Asian Tiger Mosquito attacks 24/7.
     Here is the information Claudia sent to me:  
   
     The Asian Tiger Mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is an invasive species.  As the common name suggests, it is a native of Asia, specifically Japan.  It was introduced into the U.S. in 1985, in Houston, Texas.  It probably came into this country in the egg stage, in used tires slated for the retread industry.  Since then, it has spread significantly (it has been present in NJ since 1992) and is quite a problem.  Originally a tree hole mosquito, Aedes albopictus has adapted and utilizes artificial containers as well as tree holes in which to deposit its eggs.  These eggs must undergo a period of drying before they hatch, and can remain dry and dormant for years.  When the receptacle in which the eggs have been deposited floods, usually as a result of rainfall, the eggs hatch.  During the heat of summer, it only takes about 5 to 7 days for the life cycle of egg, larva, pupa, and adult to complete.  The problem with Aedes albopictus is that it will utilize any container capable of holding water – even something as small as a discarded bottle cap.  Saucers under plants, tarps covering woodpiles or boats, clogged rain gutters, children’s toys, trash such as bottles and cans – all of these can and do serve as sites of larval production for this species of mosquito.  This is an urban/suburban mosquito, and once it is established in an area, it is exceedingly difficult to eradicate.  It requires extreme vigilance on the part of everyone in a neighborhood in order to attain control.  If any kind of receptacle is left lying about, the Asian Tiger Mosquito WILL use it as a breeding site.  Unlike most mosquito species, which are active at dawn and dusk, the Asian Tiger Mosquito is active during the day.  It’s a very aggressive biter, and mammals are its preferred source of blood meals.  They tend to go for the ankles on humans.  In addition to being a plain old nuisance, the Asian Tiger Mosquito can serve as a vector of several diseases, including West Nile virus, dengue,  and St. Louis encephalitis, and it can also transmit Dirofilaria immitus, the parasite which causes heartworm in dogs.

Aedes albopictus

     The old joke says the New Jersey state bird is the mosquito.  Keep things clean and dry and maybe, when the jokesters again refer to our state bird, it will be a creature with a beak instead of a proboscis.