Many people in our area have been getting bit by an insect lately. My wife has plenty of bites on her legs, I have one or two, I have been lucky.
The culprit?
The Aedes Aegypti mosquito, also known as the "ankle biter." You may want to read up on this little bastard. It can carry a lot of very nasty viruses, including dengue fever, yellow fever and zika.
Aedes aegypti is a known vector of several viruses including yellow fever virus, dengue virus, chikungunya virus and Zika virus. In Europe, imported cases infected with these viruses are reported every year [17,18]. Therefore, the potential establishment of this mosquito in Europe raises concerns about autochthonous transmission of these arboviruses [1-3,9,12,19], particularly in southern Europe where climatic conditions are most suitable for the re-establishment of the species. In 2012, a large outbreak of dengue fever, associated with Ae. aegypti, occurred in the Portuguese Autonomous Region of Madeira (on the African tectonic plate) [20]. The epidemic started in October 2012 and by early January 2013 more than 2 200 cases of dengue fever had been reported, with an additional 78 cases reported among European travellers returning from the island [21].
It is also known as the yellow fever mosquito. According to San Diego County Vector Control, it is being accompanied by another pest, Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, as well as the Australian backyard mosquito, Aedes notoscriptus. It looks like it is hitting Escondido pretty hard.
Honestly, get rid of standing water around your home, don't give these little shitheads a chance to bathe. Experts say that cooler weather in a few months should slow them down greatly.
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