Aedes albopictus: the Asian Tiger Mosquito
By Paul Goldfinger
In 1867, Rev. William B.Osborne, the 35-year-old son of a traveling Methodist preacher, organized the first national camp meeting at Vineland, NJ. It was there that he decided to search for a location to establish a permanent camp meeting along the Jersey shore. He had certain criteria: according to Richard Brewer’s booklet (1969) called Perspectives on Ocean Grove, Rev. Osborne was “seeking a high place by the sea that included both a grove of trees and the absence of the infamous Jersey mosquito; he finally chose Ocean Grove.”
If the Reverend were to come back today, 144 years later, he would find no groves of trees and a mosquito problem of worrisome proportions. In 1995, the invasion of the Asian tiger mosquito began in the US. This voracious bug may have come here via tires that had been sent to Asia for retreading. In the last five years, the problem has emerged in this part of the Jersey shore, including Belmar, Asbury Park, Bradley Beach and Ocean Grove. According to the Monmouth County Mosquito Extermination Commission, the situation is getting worse. We spoke to Victoria Thompson, Assistant Superintendent of the Commission, who said, “This is the challenge of our agency.”
Unlike other mosquitoes that feed from dusk to dawn (thus providing a window of opportunity for extermination), this species is active 24/7. They are prodigious breeders and they can go from egg to active bug within 5 days. They can breed anywhere there is still water, even in a candy wrapper with a tiny amount of H2O. Ms. Thompson told us that if you come to the shore for the weekend and you allow some water to remain in a bird bath, a flower pot or a garbage pail lid, by the time you return the next weekend, thousands of mosquitoes will have hatched. Her literature says that “a single planter bottom can produce over 250,000 fresh bugs!” A single child’s toy lying around in the yard can produce, depending on size, up to 1 million mosquitoes in a summer. You have to repeatedly search your property to get rid of water that might accumulate.
According to a press release from the Commission, this mosquito is “not only a serious nuisance but poses significant public health risks.” The Commission is working with other agencies, including the US Department of Agriculture, to “develop an action plan” to control this problem. Thank goodness we have a mosquito control agency in Monmouth County with the word “extermination” in its name. Hopefully this critter will make the endangered species list soon.
Editor’s note: We have tried the natural repellent sold by Shangri-La Farms at the Saturday Asbury Farmer’s Market, and it seems to work.
Below is a video on the subject, the Commission’s web address and a press release from the MC Mosquito Extermination Commission.
Six of us were having dinner on our porch recently. We were all were attacked by mosquitos. Put a box fan on one side of the porch and voila! no more mosquitoes.
Those mosquitoes, unlike the old time Jersey buggers, do not suddenly disappear in September. They were still biting last November…
I’m thinking, bring on Mothra. This video shows what that would be like:
First bike thefts, then burglaries, now tiger mosquitos. What next, Mothra? (that just might help with the mosquitos).
I’m going to double-check, but I don’t believe the county has sprayed for mosquitos since 2008, when the West Nile virus was running rampant. I know that many people (including myself) aren’t thrilled about helicopters dropping chemical mixtures over their houses, the playground and the beach, but they may be less thrilled with being a walking, talking buffet for these pests. Given the wet spring and summer we’ve had, we unhappily have a bumper crop of these man-eaters, and they don’t die off until the first hard frost.
If people would like, I can discuss with the Township Committee about seeing first if the county is still spraying, and if so, can we spray in Neptune. If people agree and the county and the Committee are willing, the areas of town to be sprayed would get a robocall from the PD stating the date and time of the spraying and asking you to stay inside for about an hour after the spraying.
So, let me know. There’s about two weeks left in the summer; we can grin and bear it and then see what the mosquito situation is like next year, and kill those little buggers dead then, or, if enough people feel they’re a prisoner in their house, we can see if we can do it this year. Dr. Paul and Charles, any way we could do a poll with “Yes, please try to spray now,” “No, summer’s almost over, and/or I don’t like pesticides,” and “Maybe next year, if the situation warrants”?
I had one of those Asian Tigers flying around my apartment a month ago. Those bloodsuckers are HUGE.
Regarding my previous remark, I am forced to acknowledge that it may germinate next summer’s worst horror movie involving spunky shore-dwellers defending themselves against blood-sucking monsters by hurling over-ripe fruit and isopropyl flame-throwers. But this victory can never happen without sufficiently under-financed backers and laughably amateurish actors….it may already be to late…..bzzzzzzz…..bzzzzz
I have read recently of a study that demonstrated mosquitoes are attracted to CO2, breathed by animals, but they avoid ethane, which is emitted by ripening fruit along with CO2. (They apparently don’t want to waste effort seeking bloodless fruit.) Try smearing yourself with ripe bananas or peaches. Is this worse than being sucked by vampire insects? You decide.
At any rate, I’ve found that if you are savaged by the demons, despite the most frantically targeted swatting, massage the bite with “rubbing alcohol (isopropyl)”. The itch will fade away quickly.
I read that if you put Listerine on your arms and legs, they will stay away. Believe it or not!
If you can stand it, lots of garlic in the diet seems to help. Sounds iffy and silly but my farmer aunt swore by it. As with everything else, she took it to extremes and even dusted the dog and cat food with it. Everyone had trouble standing downwind of her and avoided the pets, but she never seemed to be bothered by them.
Maybe we need a cedar tree planting campaign?
As a part time Ocean Grover (weekends) I am thankful for just the FEW mosquito bites I have received in OG. At my permanent residence in Central NJ I can not enjoy my gardens anymore. Even if I go out at 9am they are swarming. Our neighborhood is a ghost town at night because no one wants to brave the mosquitos. A 10 minute adventure outside usually results in my ankles and arms being bit. If I put on some mosquito repellant, the pesky things will resort to biting my face. I am starting to think that maybe the “mosquito spray” trucks of my childhood years should be utilized once again!
Out here in the bungalow-and-stick-Victorian part of Neptune known as Bradley Park, people are literally running from their cars to their front or back doors to avoid these little vampires. Because I take stupendously high doses of a sulfur-based drug for my RA, I’m usually not on the menu for the little buggers, but these guys apparently don’t mind the taste of about 3,000mg of sulfasalazine a day. We have keep our pool filter running on a two hours on, one hour off timer to keep them from breeding an army that could wipe out downtown Neptune.
When I lived in the Grove, I was told that cedar trees were deliberately planted to ward off mosquitoes. However, as the town grew, the cedars were removed, and the mosquitoes elbowed their way in. We just laid cedar chips around the patio, to try to ward some of them off, and that works pretty well. I wonder, too, if a few of those fountain-type things that were out of the route of the swan boats on Wesley Lake might help keep some of that water moving and avoid giving these little buggers a chance to breed.
There is a product made of biological materials called “Mosquito Dunks.” They look like donuts, 2 inches in diameter and easily broken in small pieces. They kill mosquito larvae and work for 30 days or more. You use them where you have containerized standing water, tree holes, flower pots, bird baths, rain barrels, roof gutters, old tires, etc. Also use at sites known to flood after a rain.
You can get them in stores that sell pond supplies. PG
are bats effective against this type of mosquito?