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My husband just cleaned out our gutters and found water, and bugs, in there. Are we supposed to do this for our Snowbird neighbors gutters too? Suzy? Sure, they have people come check the place out every few months, but I doubt their friends will do something like that. One is in Pa. and the other in England (government issued travel warning to Florida) and won't be back until November. I highly doubt either couple is going to worried about coming back here. One couple is in their 60's and the other in their 80's. No babies.
Again, as I have said, infected people can spread this in other place by being bitten by an uninfected mosquito. When officials went door to door testing people in that area, they found asymptomatic people. Nobody ever leaves their own neighborhood? With no symptoms, these would not have been tested. Could have even flown to another city and gotten bitten. Will MLB Miami (Tampa) home games be cancelled now too? Will players on these teams need to be tested before going to other cities to play games? Just imagine that!
Suzy, it is virtually impossible to eliminate every single mosquito is the USA, or to prevent people from leaving the state and traveling elsewhere. You cannot know who might have Zika but be unaware of it.
The Aedes mosquito is quite adaptable and can breed in something as small as a bottle cap.
Clogged, water-filled rain gutters are absolutely a paradise for these bloodsuckers.
Absentee snowbirds are being irresponsible if they don't have someone maintaining their property and getting rid of standing water. I might toss a mosquito dunk into their gutter as I wander by. Harmless to the gutter, but kills the larvae.
We had that problem with a foreclosed home two doors down, in Arizona during the housing crisis. The owner, a mortgage broker of all things, suddenly moved out over the weekend, leaving a half-finished swimming pool which became a swamp breeding unknown numbers of buggies.
We tossed a couple of dunks over the fence. Illegal? I doubt the bank was going to complain. Then we called the county, which said they were swamped with similar complaints. Eventually they sent a truck, and they tossed these fish into the pool that eat mosquito larvae. I think they also send a bill to the bank.
But what you do about the neighbor with the tires and buckets full of standing water all over the yard who would shoot you or sic Puffy the pit bull on you if you came near?
Go on the Florida Forum and see how many posts there are about Zika. Apart from all the catch basins for water during rainy season in Florida, which during this time can get feet high, we all have these concrete gullies running in front of our homes to catch and drain (how long?) the water so it won't flood our property. Are we supposed to get a broom and sweep it all out every day for not only our own homes but our vacant "Seasonal" neighbors as well?
When you have torrential rains daily this water stays there. Bottle caps? LOL This water stays there feet high until Rainy Season is over and the Sun dries it up.
The Aedes mosquito is quite adaptable and can breed in something as small as a bottle cap.
Clogged, water-filled rain gutters are absolutely a paradise for these bloodsuckers.
Absentee snowbirds are being irresponsible if they don't have someone maintaining their property and getting rid of standing water. I might toss a mosquito dunk into their gutter as I wander by. Harmless to the gutter, but kills the larvae.
We had that problem with a foreclosed home two doors down, in Arizona during the housing crisis. The owner, a mortgage broker of all things, suddenly moved out over the weekend, leaving a half-finished swimming pool which became a swamp breeding unknown numbers of buggies.
We tossed a couple of dunks over the fence. Illegal? I doubt the bank was going to complain. Then we called the county, which said they were swamped with similar complaints. Eventually they sent a truck, and they tossed these fish into the pool that eat mosquito larvae. I think they also send a bill to the bank.
But what you do about the neighbor with the tires and buckets full of standing water all over the yard who would shoot you or sic Puffy the pit bull on you if you came near?
I don't know how much experience you have with Florida Snowbirds who come here just for "Season", but I will tell you that they do not have to worry about having babies with birth defects when their own childbearing days are decades in the past.
The development where I live you would be hard pressed to find anyone here under the age of 50. Your neighbors might have babies with birth defects? Not likely. How far can a mosquito fly outside of a 1,000 home development?
The median age in Naples, Florida, is 62 years old for year round residents. Snowbirds? lol Those few who are of childbearing age will have a major problem with their majority elderly away neighbors. BTW, almost everything here is a gated development. Feds would probably need a court order to get inside.
We are 130 miles from Miami. Can a mosquito fly that far unless they hitch a ride in somebody's car? Now you want to get in infected PEOPLE traveling from place to place, that is another topic.
I don't know how much Zika can develop in the US since mosquitos need warm climate and they can breed year round in countries near the equator. Here in NJ, I doubt they can breed very well once we will November most of them will die outside. The only way I can think of infections are through human contact.
I don't know anyone that's going to Latin America and likely not have any contact.
I don't know how much Zika can develop in the US since mosquitos need warm climate and they can breed year round in countries near the equator. Here in NJ, I doubt they can breed very well once we will November most of them will die outside. The only way I can think of infections are through human contact.
I don't know anyone that's going to Latin America and likely not have any contact.
I am from NY and now live in South Florida. October up North can get into the 40's at night. Mosquitoes? Actually even here in South Florida in January/February it can also. Many times we put our heat on at night then. Northern Florida in Winters? I have worn my winter coat driving back in January from NY when temps in Jacksonville at night were in the 30's. lol Don't tell the tourists THAT.
Mosquitoes will probably not survive the Winters in Florida, let alone Fall in the NE. Only a few months and the "panic" will be over.
I don't know how much Zika can develop in the US since mosquitos need warm climate and they can breed year round in countries near the equator. Here in NJ, I doubt they can breed very well once we will November most of them will die outside. The only way I can think of infections are through human contact.
I don't know anyone that's going to Latin America and likely not have any contact.
Good luck with that theory. I live in the driest desert in the country, the Mojave, and got West Nile after being bitten by mosquitos two years ago.
It gets down to 28 degrees at night here during the winter. The other day we had 2% humidity, and there was a mosquito in my bathroom.
Mosquitoes are some of the most adaptable organisms on the planet. They're up there with ants and cockroaches. To wipe them out is going to require some serious genetic engineering chops, which we may or may not actually have yet. But wipe them out we must, because sooner or later they will pick up the next nasty virus and become plague carriers.
What burns me up is these bio-ethicists, people with a Ph.D. in a made-up field sitting around asking: "Yes, we could wipe out mosquitoes, but should we? Would it be right?"
To which I would reply: KILL! SQUISH! NUKE THEM FROM ORBIT!
The world survived quite well before mosquitoes, and will survive fine without them.
The world survived quite well before mosquitoes, and will survive fine without them.
Mosquitoes have been around for millions of years, much longer than humans.
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