Mosquitoes & Dangerous Disease: What Everyone In Plano Should Know

All mosquitoes are not created equal. Do you know that some species of mosquito can present more of a threat to you and your family than others? In the United States, the most dangerous mosquitoes are of the group known as Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. While not considered a vector for West Nile virus, like Culex mosquitoes are, they are known to transmit a long list of other dangerous pathogens such as Zika virus, chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever, and malaria. Here are a few things you should know about Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

Identification

We have two Aedes mosquitoes in Plano, Texas. They are the Aedes albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito) and the Aedes aegypti (yellow fever mosquito). The Asian tiger mosquito and the yellow fever mosquito have black and white markings that help to tell them apart from other mosquitoes. If you catch one of these mosquitoes feeding on your skin, you may notice its back legs lifted in an upward arch.

How long do Aedes mosquitoes live?

Once an Aedes mosquito hatches from its egg, it isn't long for this world. It will only live about two to four weeks. One week of that time will be in its development stage. The eggs hatch in stagnant water and emerge as larvae. These larvae are also called wigglers because of the way they move. Larvae develop into pupae—also called tumblers. At about a week, the pupae become flying adults. This is when they begin to plague you in your yard, but you can disrupt this process at any time by dumping stagnant water resources out onto the ground where those developing mosquitoes will dry up in the sun and die.

How Mosquitoes Transmit Diseases

Aedes mosquitoes aren't born with harmful diseases. They have to contract and incubate them. This is done by biting humans or wildlife. The largest concern with Aedes mosquitoes is not localized diseases in wildlife as much as interaction with traveling humans. All it takes is one traveler entering the state with one of these diseases for an outbreak to spread like wildfire.

World travel has made the world a much smaller place. It only takes a short time for someone to enter Texas from Mexico, Central America, or South America by air. Some of these Southern countries have widespread mosquito-borne viruses that are spread by Aedes mosquitoes.

How Aedes Mosquitoes Breed

These mosquitoes breed in stagnant water. If you eliminate stagnant water resources in your yard, you can significantly reduce your chances of being bitten. Why? Because most of the Aedes mosquitoes that bite you in your yard are mosquitoes that have hatched in your yard. Aedes mosquitoes don't travel far in their lifetime. A typical Aedes mosquito will only travel a few hundred feet. These mosquitoes don't fly around in your neighborhood, going from yard to yard in search of someone to bite. They hatch and hang out in your yard. When you go outside, they come out of hiding and try to bite you.

Reduce breeding sites by:

• Locating and removing containers that capture rainwater.
• Fixing leaking spigots, hoses, or pipes.
• Cleaning gutters and repairing damaged gutters.
• Loosening compacted soil.
• Addressing conditions that allow moisture to saturate the ground.
• Adding water circulators to stagnant water resources, such as birdbaths.

How Mosquito Reduction Helps

When you invest in professional mosquito control from All-Safe Pest & Termite, we help you get control of mosquitoes in two important ways.

Treatments — Our pest professionals apply treatments to key areas on your property where mosquitoes hide. This is a residual product that works to repel and eliminate mosquitoes between visits. If even one female mosquito is eliminated, it has the potential to prevent that one mosquito from laying hundreds of mosquitoes in your yard.

In2Care Traps — When female mosquitoes look for a place to lay eggs in your yard, the In2Care traps we deploy on your property will provide the perfect breeding sites. Unfortunately for those female mosquitoes, these traps are designed to eliminate their eggs, and also eliminate them.

If you have questions, or you'd like to speak with one of our representatives about one-time or seasonal mosquito control, reach out to us. We're always here to help you with your pest control needs.