Comment by bloudermilk | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bloudermilk | Hacker News Reader

I'm amazed by the spread of various Asian mosquito breeds throughout the world in my lifetime. When I grew up in Los Angeles (90s/00s) the only time I remember ever getting a mosquito bite was while camping in the Summer. Fast forward to ~5 years ago and there has been a persistent outbreak across LA of the Tiger mosquito and several other species. It's so bad that you simply can't be outside around sunrise/sunset without taking the necessary precautions. We now have a division within the pest control authority that deals specifically with tracking and eradicating them.

Two years ago I moved to Southern France only to find it's the exact same story.

We're dealing with an airborne virus pandemic now, but I can easily imagine the day when the Global North is dealing with the same mosquito-borne diseases that decimate parts of Africa and Asia.

The global north has dealt with the same mosquito-borne diseases that decimate parts of Africa, inasmuch as malaria used to exist in Europe (even as far north as Finland) and in the southeastern United States. However, efforts were made to eradicate malaria there over the 19th and 20th centuries and were successful.

I'm aware of these efforts and just pointing out that it's likely to happen again. Not to mention we won't be able to blanket the nation in DDT this time...

So many invasive species beside mosquitoes. Box tree moths have now invaded huge chunks of Western Europe. Depending on the year, they can be abundant and have done some serious damage to green areas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydalima_perspectalis

Definitely. I started researching them just because I noticed how much more aggressive they are than the mosquitoes we had when I was younger (including hunting during the day). Most of the literature I found talks about them as possible disease vectors. So far nothing has been connected to them (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2627635/pdf/928...), but it's definitely a cause for concern.

I also live in L.A. and can attest to how nasty tiger mosquitos are. When I was still using our patio, I had eight bites on one foot (they like to go for the lower limbs where you can’t hear them). One of them is still scarred 6 months later.

By then, Bill Gates will have taken care of it.

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