What makes mosquitoes truly dangerous is the fact that they can transmit several dangerous diseases. Let’s take a look at these diseases and the threats that they pose.
Zika virus
The zika virus is transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, and the disease has symptoms such as fever, rashes, joint pain, and conjunctivitis. For the most part, infestation with this virus is mild, and hospitalization is uncommon. However, health officials suspect that the Zika virus is tied to an increase in Guillain-Barre syndrome and microcephaly in newborns in Brazil.
Chikungunya virus
This virus is endemic across several parts of the world, with the US getting more and more cases each year, but the number of infections in the US is still in the hundreds. The disease is rarely fatal, but it can cause debilitating joint pain.
West Nile virus
The West Nile virus is one of the viruses that has the potential to become endemic in the US, with the first case being identified in 1999 in New York. By the year 2003, over 10,000 cases were detected in humans, resulting in 262 deaths. The rate of infection continued to grow, and between the years 2009 and 2013, there were an average of 1,200 serious cases that resulted in neurological diseases. The virus can also be spread to and from birds and horses, and there are 75 mosquito species in the US that can spread it. Most of the cases however are very mild.
Dengue
There are as many as 100 million cases of dengue each year across the world. The disease is spread by the Aedes aegypti which is a mosquito species in the US, and while the disease is still rare in the country, there have been outbreaks on the Texas-Mexico border, Hawaii and Florida. The disease can be deadly if it is not treated early and properly.
Removing mosquito infestations
While the odds of contracting one of these diseases is fairly low, nobody wants mosquitoes on their property, and in order to remove an infestation you have to work with a pro. A pro will control the infestation at its source – the bodies of standing water on or near your property. This water will either be removed or treated with larvicides that will prevent more mosquitoes from spawning. If you have any questions about this process, or if you have a mosquito infestation on your property, contact us today.
