With all the recent news reports regarding mosquitoes, the Zika virus, and their significance to public health, pest management professionals have a new challenge in the fight against outdoor mosquito mayhem. Zika virus (an arbovirus or arthropod borne virus) is a Flavivirus that is moved from one person to another via biting mosquitoes.

Spread by the daytime biters, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (which also spread chikungunya and dengue), Zika virus infects a human host, multiples within the human body, and reinfects (for about a week) subsequent biting mosquitoes that continue the spread of the virus.

In adults, only about 1 in 5 people become ill from Zika and the symptoms are treated with rest, fluids, and acetaminophen.

• Headache
• Mild fever
• Skin rash
• Joint and muscle pain
• Conjunctivitis or red eyes

Zika virus has been shown to cause microcephaly in newborns or an abnormally small head and brain, in infants. The virus is transmitted mother to child, through blood transfusions, and sexual contact. There is no vaccine.

Mosquitoes are the worst offending insects on the planet. Buzzing, biting, itching, and disease carrying, they have been around for 100 million years. Co-evolving with numerous species (hosts) and man. With ~3000 species, all require blood for reproduction. In Alaska, mosquito swarms are so massive that they can asphyxiate caribou.

Fast Facts

• Type: Insect
• Diet: Carnivore
• Average life span: 2 weeks to 6 months
• Size: 1/8 to 3/4 in. (0.3 to 2 cm)
• Weight: Average 0.000088 oz. (2.5 mg)
• Group name: Swarm
• Did you know: The red bump and itching caused by a mosquito bite is actually an allergic reaction to mosquito saliva

Mosquito bites resulting in disease transmission kill millions of people and domestic animals annually. Malaria alone kills over one million people annually.

Bites

• Locate host through CO₂, heat, ammonia, lactic acid, and octenol
• Land and slather saliva on skin-works as antiseptic and numbing agent
• Serrated mandibles probe skin and find capillary bed-take 2 to 3x body weight in blood

Reproduction

• The female mosquito bites and feeds upon the blood of humans or other animals
• After a blood meal, the female mosquito places eggs in or near areas of stagnant or standing water, such as swamps, pools, and puddles
• Eggs can survive dry conditions for long periods of time

Billions of dollars are being spent on mosquito control research. Areas of research and control include surveillance, sterile male release, adulticides (when and when not to apply), larvicides, CO2 traps, CDC traps, source reduction, public education on conducive conditions (such as eliminating water containers), nets, repellents, candles, and many others.

Essential to a successful and ongoing mosquito control program, adulticides and larvicides are strategic tools for pest management professionals.

• Mavrik® Perimeter insecticide featuring honey bee-friendly active ingredient tau-Fluvalinate is a broad-spectrum pyrethroid that both controls and knocks down mosquitoes around the outside perimeter of residential and commercial buildings. Mavrik provides building occupants with both relief and rescue from dangerous biting mosquitoes.
• Lambda 9.7 CS is an encapsulated formula designed with efficiency in mind. Providing both knockdown of adult mosquitoes and residual control. Its advanced protection technology prevents the breakdown of the active ingredient in heat and UV exposure resulting in reduced callbacks.
• Altosid® PRO-G is the ideal long-term control system featuring S-Methoprene an insect growth regulator (IGR). A sustained release granular format for ease of application to be placed into mosquito breeding sites including catch basins, storm drains, tires, gutters, birdbaths, and other water-holding containers found in and around commercial and residential environments. Altosid PRO-G provides up to 30 days of control in standing water, and will not affect fish, waterfowl, mammals, or beneficial predatory insects.
• Mavrik Perimeter, Lambda 9.7 CS, Altosid PRO-G: a strategic and systematic control program in the fight against outdoor mosquito mayhem.

To know your pest and to know your product, go to http://www.zoecon.com/insects/mosquitoes.

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