As the Zika virus spreads in the Miami area, many counties and cities around the nation are ramping up measures because a warmer world means new geographic regions are opening up, mosquitoes mature faster, feed more frequently and live longer.
Yellow and Asian tiger mosquitoes transmit Dengue, Chikungunya, West Nile and Zika.
Zika can be passed sexually to a partner, pregnant women run the risk of birth defects and adults can develop Guillian Barre Syndrome, whereby the human autoimmune system attacks its nerves, potentially causing paralysis.
Miami is spraying the insecticide Dibrom, trade name Naled. The intent is to intercept the mosquitoes in flight. It’s a quick fix, but we pay a high price for it. Naled kills natural predators and worse — mosquitoes quickly evolve. It’s impossible to fumigate every corner of habitat where mosquitoes live.
In general, mosquitoes have a very short life cycle — a week or less. When insecticides are used, it applies selection pressure on mosquito populations, which in turn drives them to become resistant.
New Orleans is using nature’s antidote — western mosquitofish and tiny crustaceans called copepods to gobble up mosquito larvae.
I’m a big proponent of lemon Eucalyptus essential oil mixed with an almond oil carrier, rather than EPA’s choice of DEET. Covering up with long sleeves, long pants and socks is the best way to minimize available skin surface for the bloodthirsty female mosquitoes to draw blood and potentially infect you.
Many southern American cities have now banned stockpiling old tires because water accumulates in them and mosquito larvae hatch from these tiny patches of stagnant water.
Houston has added an extra shift for garbage men to remove all construction trash and materials from empty lots that can also create mosquito breeding ponds.
The County of Los Angeles — the largest in America with 10 million residents — is on alert; 24 people died last year from West Nile. They have pinpointed the San Gabriel Valley and the eastern portion of the county as a most likely Zika target for the mosquitoes.
New York City has an aggressive $21 million plan in place, creating 51 jobs including inspectors, exterminators, disease inspectors, lab analysts and doubling the number of traps to more than 120. The yellow mosquito has already been detected in New York City.
Raising public awareness across America is priority one.
The real concern are rising temperatures, which will sooner or later expose the southern edges of United States to Malaria — it has been here before, and it will return.
The climate in crisis along with the destruction of nature, ecocide, is a deadly combination hastening the demise of the human race.
In November, we need newly elected leadership that acknowledges the severity of this situation and a commander in chief who will double down efforts on distancing society from heat-trapping, climate-altering, subsidized fossil fuel.
It is time to create new jobs by future proofing America and protecting citizens coast to coast from more predicted wild weather.
Earth Doctor Reese Halter is the author of “The Insatiable Bark Beetle.”