If you plan a trip to Florida this year, beware of the huge mosquitoes.
Giant sized mosquitoes, as large as 20 times the normal mosquito size, are predicted for Florida this summer, the Sun Sentinel newspaper reported Saturday.
Phil Kaufman, an entomologist with the University of Florida says a bumper crop of huge mosquitoes called gallinippers may be on the way.
“The gallinipper is a floodwater mosquito, with females laying eggs in soil at the edges of ponds, streams and other water bodies that overflow when heavy rains come. The eggs can remain dry and dormant for years, until high waters cause them to hatch,” Kaufman said in a press release issued by the university. More info from the University of Florida on the coming super-sized mosquitoes can be found here.
The extra-large mosquitoes are being blamed on flood waters from tropical storm Debbie last June.
The giant mosquitoes are notoriously aggressive and have a painful bite.
It is the lady mosquitors that you will have to worry about. The female bugs feed on blood but the males feed on flower nectar.
“The bite really hurts, I can attest to that,” Kaufman said.
As a traveler, what precautions should you take to avoid getting stung by the “huge Florida mosquitoes?”
The University of Florida has this advice, “Gallinippers can be warded off with repellents containing DEET, though Kaufman said that due to their large size they may be more tolerant of the compound than smaller biting mosquitoes. Other precautions include wearing long pants and long-sleeved shirts when venturing into wooded areas, especially places where standing water collects after rain storms.”
Will the prediction for the very large mosquitoes deter you from visiting Florida? Do you have any advice to avoid getting bit? Leave you comments in Facebook below.
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