LONDON LETTER: Flood waters and summer heat provide a perfect breeding ground for the insects
THE SOMERSET Levels, between the Quantock and Mendip Hills in central Somerset, were used in the summer only by farmers in pre-historic times because of flooding.
During the Neolithic period, inhabitants harvested reeds from the swamps for roofing and other needs, going so far as to create the world’s first timber trackway – the Post Track – to get it out.
Indeed, Somerset’s name, a relatively modern derivation from Sumorsaete, meaning land of the summer people, draws deep from ancient habits.
Today, the Somerset Levels, like much of Britain, have seen relatively little of summer, but what they have seen is a plague of mosquitoes, helped to breed by stagnant water.
The pools were left by the heavy flooding that occurred repeatedly earlier this year. Today, with the summer temperatures, much of them are infested with mosquito larvae.
Fed up with being bitten, one exasperated local, Jon Ryan, who lives in Godney, near Wells, bought a mosquito net, prompted by 40 bites in one night.
“I’ve lived here for four or five years now and I’ve never known the problem to be so bad. You’d maybe get two or three bites. But this year it’s terrible,” he complained.
Farmers, too, are feeling the mosquitoes’ effects. Neighbour, Mike Churches, who still has 90 acres of pasture under water, has had to spend £6,000 (€7,600) on antibiotics for his suffering stock.
The Environment Agency, which notes the anecdotal evidence of increased numbers, is working to drain the remaining pools by pumping in coming days.
While British mosquitoes can leave sizeable welts behind on those most susceptible, they do not carry disease – but more dangerous cousins are heading ever closer.
The Asian bush mosquito, a native of Korea, has been identified in Belgium, while the Asian Tiger mosquito, which carries dengue fever, is breeding in parts of Spain and Italy.
Greater travel by humans, not just insects, is partly to blame, says the British bio-tech company Oxitec, which is seeking ways of using genetics to curb the mosquitos’ spread.
In 2007, Northern Italy had an outbreak of Chikungunya, a disease brought by an Indian holidaymaker but subsequently spread by local mosquitoes.
It causes fever, headaches, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle pains and rashes. Sometimes, but rarely, it can kill.
More than 250 people are believed to have contracted it, one of whom died.
The Asian Tiger, more properly known as Aedes albopictus, could get to Britain, cautions Dr James Logan, medical entomologist at the London School of Hygiene Tropical Medicine.
“Because they lay their drought-resistant eggs in transportable materials, like used tyres, there is a possibility that they can be transported to a country where they are not normally found,” he said.
“Some studies suggest that they could survive the UK winter. However, to date this species has not been found in the UK and the Health Protection Agency are keeping a watchful eye on it.”
Oxford University zoologist Michael Bonsall argues that malaria-carrying species could make their way into the North Kent marshes, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, helped by the fact that many are now becoming immune to pesticides.
Between 2007 and 2010, the number of mosquito types resistant to one pesticide in Senegal in West Africa rose from 8 per cent to 48 per cent: “This could be a big problem for future control,” says Dr Hilary Ranson of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
In Britain, the wet June and warm July, combined with pools of stagnant water, has “provided the perfect atmosphere for them to flourish”, says Mike Williamson of pest-control firm Cleankill. In 2011 British local authorities said reports of mosquito bites in the previous decade had been 2.5 times greater than the numbers recorded in the 10 years to 1996 – though recording has improved, it must be said.
Changing habits among humans may partly explain matters, according to Prof Steve Lindsay, a disease ecologist with Durham University, who has studied vector-borne diseases for 20 years.
“People may be going to concerts in fields or camping near lakes or marshes, so they’re seeing more of them,” he said last month. “There are little pockets in Regent’s Park and Epping Forest.”
In the past, Britain did have malaria-carrying mosquitoes, particularly in the salt marshes of southeastern England, with outbreaks still occurring in the years after the first World War. Drainage helped eradicate them.
Some 33 types of mosquitoes have been recorded in Britain, though some have not been seen for many years. The most common is the small brown Culex pipiens, which is most noticeable in the autumn.
However, all but one of its sub-types feed on the blood of birds, not humans; though the family as a whole is often wrongly blamed for nuisance biting. Often, the culprits can simply be midges, horse-flies, or black flies, all of which pose their own irritations.
Back in Somerset, locals are demanding the Environment Agency – which is already trying to cope with calls on every front in the wake of two drenchingly wet winters – drains not just the stagnant pools in fields, but also dredges local rivers.
In the meantime, many more will follow the lead of Jon Ryan and take to the internet to buy mosquito nets – at up to £30, depending on the quality. That is, of course, unless they become a staple on shop-counters in Somerset.
