You may have noticed, there are a lot of mosquitoes this year, more than usual, in several municipalities in the Var and more generally in the South. This is particularly the case in Hyères, where several types of mosquitoes including the tiger enjoy sucking the blood of tourists and locals.
“They really fucked me up”
And to realize it, just look at Paulo’s leg, a seasonal worker from Saint-Etienne. According to him, he has about ten bites. “It’s a big disaster, I didn’t think it would be so much. They really fucked me up this year“He exclaims while still smiling.
All the people met in the streets make the same observation: “There are more mosquitoes this year, we are bitten more than usual”. “We leave the pharmacy there“says Frédérique, a Dijon vacationer.We just bought the products.” “It is especially in the evening that there are many“adds his daughter.
“Between 50 and 60 calls per day” to the mosquito control center
As a result, we are not unemployed on the side of Jean-Brice Cortez, head of the mosquito control service of the city of Hyères. “It’s between 50 and 60 calls a day and in addition we also receive emails“. From tourists but also from “Hyérois who have been settled for a long time or who were born here and who tell us that they have never seen this.“.
This exceptional situation is due to the storm at the end of June in Hyères. It fell in three hours the equivalent of two months of rain. This episode had the consequence, according to Jean-Brice Cortez, that “cand exceptional water supply has created stagnant water points, which has exceptionally and exponentially favored reproduction. All the eggs were able to begin their larval cycle and we ended up with a fairly large proliferation of mosquitoes.”
The whole city is affected. According to the Hyères mosquito control service, the life of a mosquito is about 3 weeks, one month maximum. The situation should therefore improve at the end of July, the time that all this new population of mosquitoes which was born at the beginning of July after the storm dies.
Mosquito bollards “can’t do everything”
The manager explains that he also receives calls from people complaining about the inefficiency of the 400 mosquito traps installed in the city. According to him, these terminals “can reduce the nuisance but are not the miracle solution. Jean-Brice Cortez recalls that they are “complementary with all the actions that we can do, but they cannot do everything.”
He adds that “they were very effective in 2020-2021 but we did not have this weather situation. When it rains six times ten millimeters and it has time to drain, the bollards do their job very well. They are only complementary to the actions that must be done in the public domain and in the private sector.
The fight against stagnant water is fundamental
Moreover Jean-Brice Cortez insists on the fact that if the public authorities obviously have their role to play, individuals can also fight against the proliferation of mosquitoes at their level. “The female of the tiger mosquito will lay eggs in a place where she will say to herself ‘well, it’s a humid place, potentially there will be water’, as soon as the eggs are submerged they will begin another larval cycle and we will start another adult population.”
The manager of the Hyères mosquito control service therefore takes the opportunity to remind you that it is necessary “really do what is necessary at home, namely: empty all that could be stagnant water in your property, such as the cat’s bowl that you forgot. Cover if you have compost bins and recycling bins rainwater through mosquito nets to enclose the mosquitoes and that they die in these places and that they do not come out Clean out their sink traps, their gutters and really if everyone has their level does a little bit, we can also reduce this population there.”
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