ANPThe Asian Tiger Mosquito
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 16:57
Steven Sheep
editor online
Steven Sheep
editor online
Year after year, the tiger mosquito moves further north from southern Europe. Data from the European health institute ECDC shows that a growing area is affected by the insect and that the tiger mosquito has now established itself as far as the French-Belgian border. The mosquito is also increasingly appearing in the Netherlands and in the long term its permanent establishment can also be expected here, according to experts.
The movement of the tiger mosquito from southern Europe has been going on for a long time. In ten years, the mosquito spread from 114 regions in 8 countries to 337 regions in 13 countries in Europe, in an increasingly northerly direction.
These maps clearly show that the tiger mosquito has moved further north between 2017 and this year:
ECDC/EFSA/NOS
The distribution of the tiger mosquito in Europe in 2017
ECDC/EFSA/NOS
The distribution of the tiger mosquito in Europe in 2018
ECDC/EFSA/NOS
The distribution of the tiger mosquito in Europe in 2019
ECDC/EFSA/NOS
The distribution of the tiger mosquito in Europe in 2020
ECDC/EFSA/NOS
The distribution of the tiger mosquito in Europe in 2021
ECDC/EFSA/NOS
The distribution of the tiger mosquito in Europe in 2022
ECDC/EFSA/NOS
The distribution of the tiger mosquito in Europe in 2023
“This will become more urgent for us. That is not a question of ‘maybe’, that is a fact,” says mosquito expert Bart Knols, who has been researching mosquitoes for years. “There is no other way with climate change. This is where climate change and globalization come together: the transport of goods containing mosquitoes and their eggs, and people who travel and bring diseases with them, which can transmit the mosquitoes.”
Knols speaks of “a time bomb” and expects an “explosive growth” in the number of tiger mosquitoes, partly due to the higher temperatures as a result of climate change. “Insects are cold-blooded, so high temperatures are beneficial. The eggs and larvae also develop very quickly in those conditions.”
In our part of Europe it often takes a week or two for the mosquitoes to mature. “At high temperatures, that only takes five or six days,” explains Knols. “Then you very quickly have a lot of adult mosquitoes that can fly around and look for a blood meal, and they then lay eggs. This way a population can quickly grow in numbers.”
The tiger mosquito
Tiger mosquitoes, recognizable by their small size and black and white stripe pattern, can spread numerous infectious diseases if they have bitten an infected person or animal. The animal, which bites mainly during the day, is often mentioned in the same breath as dengue fever, but the tiger mosquito can also spread all kinds of other viruses, such as chikungunya and the Zika virus, which is dangerous for fetuses.
The chance of contracting this type of infectious disease from the tiger mosquito is still small in the Netherlands. Here, these diseases only occur sporadically when someone is infected with them abroad and takes the virus to the Netherlands. As a result, the chance that the scarce number of tiger mosquitoes will spread diseases is small.
At the end of last year, outgoing Minister of Health Kuipers already wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives that he expects that combating exotic mosquito species such as the tiger mosquito will become more difficult due to climate change and greening, among other things. In time, it may no longer be possible to eradicate the species, he wrote at the time.
This has also happened, for example, with the Asian forest mosquito (Aedes japonicus), which first appeared in 2012 in allotment gardens in Lelystad. Initially, this mosquito was also combated by the NVWA, but the settlement area continued to grow and in 2018, the RIVM advised to stop the eradication of the Asian wood mosquito in the Flevopolder completely. Outside this area, this mosquito is still being controlled.
The government has “thrown in the towel in the fight against that forest mosquito and blames it on inadequate control in Germany that the mosquito is now also established in four South Limburg municipalities,” says medical entomologist Knols.
“The same will happen with the tiger mosquito. And then it will also be said: sorry, we did our best, but this comes from Belgium. And that while I and many others have been arguing for a better approach for sixteen years. It is very frustrating. Soon it will be too late and then we will all look back musingly and say: ‘if only we had’…”, sighs Knols.
EU problem
Mosquito traps are located at known risk locations, such as importers of bamboo or car tires, on business parks. So in theory the mosquito is quickly noticed there. But in residential areas there are no traps, so they may come into the picture later. And the fight stands or falls with the cooperation of residents.
Knols advocates an overarching European approach to exotic mosquito species. “This is a typical EU problem. Now take care of policy at EU level, make sure that all countries put money on the table and set up a center that deals with this.”
Eggs of tiger mosquitoes, for example, could be stored there. “Then if you have an outbreak, you just fly in a bunch of those eggs, breed them, sterilize the males and release them. When they mate with wild females in nature, they don’t produce viable eggs. That is a very green and sustainable way that is already being used in Southern Europe.”
2023-08-04 14:57:34
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