Thursday, April 20, 2017

Guide to Mosquito and Tick Diseases

(Click on the image for the report)
From Consumer Reports: "There are proven ways to protect yourself (and your family) from all of these diseases: Keeping your grass cut low, ridding your yard of standing water, tucking your pants into your socks on long walks, and wearing an effective insect repellent on your exposed skin are all good places to start.
But it also helps to know which diseases are spreading where, and what signs and symptoms to watch out for in your particular neck of the woods."
Related is the New York Times article, 'Why the Menace of Mosquitoes Will Only Get Worse': "The traps that health departments bought to catch Culex mosquitoes are not attractive to Aedes. The spraying with pesticide by trucks and airplanes that knocks down nuisance mosquitoes cannot reach ones that have sneaked into buildings. The best defense against Aedes mosquitoes turns out to be not big municipal gestures but small individual actions: destroying their habitat by emptying the pools of water where they reproduce, and keeping them from eating by repairing windows screens and wearing bug repellent."