Although we often suffer from mosquitoes in the summer months, mosquitoes can also cause a lot of nuisance and transmit diseases in the winter.
Westnijlvirus
Researchers in Wageningen would like to know which types of mosquitoes they are, where they are active, what their biting behavior is like and whether they carry pathogens (such as the West Nile virus) in the winter. That is why they call the Dutch on dead mosquitoes to send.
In the past few weeks, dozens of people gave via the website muggenradar because they had a lot of mosquitoes. Previous studies in 2014 and 2015 already showed that mosquitoes can also cause nuisance in winter.
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According to the university, the biggest culprit was the twin sister of the common house mosquito, the molestus variety. It prefers to bite mammals, does not rest in the winter and uses underground breeding grounds such as crawl spaces that contain water.
Kill and send
The same variant is probably also causing nuisance now. To be sure of this, researchers in Wageningen want to investigate the mosquitoes. Until March 16, you can kill and send mosquitoes that you find in and around the house.
For that you have a bottle cap, a piece of kitchen roll, aluminum foil or cling film and need an envelope.
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Even mosquitoes damaged by a hard blow are welcome. And if there is still blood in the mosquito, not only the mosquito species and the amount of nuisance, but also the biting behavior can be determined.
Mosquito with blood
Because with that blood researchers can see whether it comes from a human, cat, rabbit, bird or other animal. The university needs this information to estimate the likelihood of transmission of the viruses from birds to humans.
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Of course you prefer to avoid being stung before you kill the mosquito. You do that like this.
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