Why are tiger mosquito bites dangerous?

Among most hated insects from mankind there is no doubt that primacy belongs to mosquitoes. This is because, in addition to being very invasive and weedy insects, they are the cause of annoying bites with associated swelling and itching and often make the nights intolerable with their continuous buzz.
There are certainly many remedies to keep them away, even based on natural repellents; not everyone, however, knows that the problem of the danger of mosquito bitesunderestimated by many, and in particular that of tiger mosquito bitesalso known under the scientific name of Aedes Albopictus for its characteristic striped livery.
It’s about a very aggressive mosquito because it has a predominantly diurnal activity unlike its “cousins” of other species, acting both outdoors and in domestic spaces and in any case not disdaining to sting to feed even after sunset. To all this is added the marked predilection for the human being and an impressive reproductive capacity, but its own proliferation must be contained at all costs because the tiger mosquito constitutes a serious health risk for humans.

The dangers of the tiger mosquito and the health risk

THE dangers of tiger mosquito bites derive from the ability of this insect to be a very skilled biological vector capable of transmit various viral infections to humans also serious: among these we can include the dengue virus, that of yellow fever, chikingunya and also that of West Nile fever. All of them are also quite serious pathologies and which have also been recorded in Italy, often with real ones outbreaks as happened in the not too distant 2017 (here the news reported by the website of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità) with hundreds of cases ascertained in limited areas, especially in flat areas and naturally in the period of greatest diffusion of mosquitoes, the hottest one of the year. Limit that health risk it is everyone’s task and duty, and can be done by implementing prevention strategies aimed at hinder the proliferation of mosquitoes and their larvae and egg laying.
It is therefore up to everyone according to their means to pay attention to behaviors and attitudes, as we will see in the next paragraph.

Tiger mosquito prevention

Starting with ordinary citizens, everyone must become aware of the health risk of tiger mosquito proliferation but also of other species also capable of transmitting other dangerous diseases, just think of malaria. The reproduction capacity of mosquitoes in the period from April to October reaches stratospheric numbers, and this depends on their ability to lay even 300 eggs at a time.

Citizens and prevention

Anyone can implement precautions and precautions to avoid offering mosquitoes fertile ground for proliferation, and the ground in this case is actually water. Any dive basin can collect water, even small ones, it is in fact a real boon for mosquitoes.
The main tricks are:

• Do not leave containers or containers in the open air in which water is contained or which can collect rainwater: buckets, vases, planters, even saucers and watering cans would call the mosquitoes to lay their eggs
• Bins such as those for agricultural activities that cannot be emptied must be hermetically sealed
• If you have a swimming pool but don’t intend to use it during that time, it should be kept empty
• An ornamental pond or a small lake in a garden should be treated with suitable low environmental impact larvicidesalthough the option more greens it is to populate them with goldfish that will feed on the mosquito larvae

Public bodies and prevention

Public bodies such as i common and the ASL instead they have the specific duty to protect the health of the community performing interventions disinfestation programmatic and on a monthly basis in public areas, think of the fountains but above all of the manhole covers and at drains. In fact, the latter put the roadway in communication with the sewage system through the grates that make rainwater flow out, and this is precisely the environment of choice for the proliferation of mosquitoes in cities as it is humid and unhealthy.
Specifics must be introduced larvicides with a very low environmental impact and that they are not toxic to other organisms not included in the target. These interventions, however necessary, nevertheless introduce chemical substances into the environment and ecosystem, and if we think about it, everything could be avoided by following a different strategy and approach, based on a anti-mosquito system entirely mechanical and therefore more eco-friendly.

A mechanical mosquito repellent

A concrete and effective one mosquito control strategy and their proliferation can be implemented thanks to newly conceived devices with which to equip the manholes and drains.
The functioning of an anti-mosquito system of this kind, such as the one developed and patented by UNFO-PLS, is based on the principle according to which manholes, to be logical, should only be opened when necessary, i.e. when rainwater or water used for street washing needs to flow into the sewage pipes. At all other times it is good that the subsoil remains isolated from the surface, avoiding the escape of unwelcome presences but also of bad smells. To work in this light against the danger posed by the tiger mosquito and from other mosquitoes it also means implementing structural and instrumental policies that are more respectful of the environment, as it is possible to do without chemical disinfectants and pesticides.