Tropical storm Irene: It’s the “gift” that keeps on giving.
As if destroying homes, devastating businesses and ripping up roadways wasn’t enough, nearly a month after Irene swept through Vermont with massive flooding, Irene has hit Vermont again — with an almost biblical plague of mosquitoes.
Not the summer annoyance kind. No, a drive-you-crazy swarming-around-the-head cloud of the whining biting insects.
Jon Turmel, the state’s bug guru — his official title is state entomologist — has never seen anything like it, and he’s been at the job for 34 years.
“We were having a (Vermont) farm show meeting on my deck and they drove us inside,” says Turmel, who says he has never had mosquitoes like this at his home in Barre Town.
The problem is widespread. In Richmond, Cathi Aikman was trying to work outside over the weekend and was astounded by the mosquitoes.
“They have been horrific. We couldn’t be outside this afternoon. Everybody I know was complaining about it,” she said Sunday. “I went for a walk yesterday and they were biting me through my clothes.”
Being driven inside when the fall weather is gorgeous and leaves are turning is almost as painful as the mosquito bites.
“It’s been so beautiful outside this last week. It kills me,” Aikman said.
Turmel leaves no doubt who’s to blame.
“It started four weeks ago when this woman called Irene came through, depositing a lot of water,” he said. Add to that unusually sultry tropical air and innumerable pools of standing water, mix with a couple of weeks time, and you’ve got the perfect conditions for an epic mosquito hatch.
Turmel said he didn’t believe the syndrome that has decimated bat populations in the state is playing a role in the explosion of mosquitoes.
Turmel said the primary culprit in the outbreak is a mosquito known as Aedes Cinereus, which hatches from temporary pools of stagnant water. It’s one of 46 species known in Vermont, he said.
Aedes Cinereus is almost gnatlike, smaller than the mosquitoes most people are familiar with, hatches in about 7-16 days, and is “mammalophilic (preferring to feed on mammals), according to the National Wildlife Health Center website of the USGS.
Until the weather cools down or the wind starts whipping, we’re in for a biting fall.”
Mammalophilic, unfortunately, means it likes to feed on us, being mammals.
Sandal Cate of East Montpelier was one of many people feeding them last week. She’s an environmental educator at the North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier.
“It’s been really bad,” she said, especially because it comes at a time when a lot of folks like to walk in the woods or go bird watching.
“As an outdoorsy person, they’ve been really annoying,” Cate said of the “little buggers.’
Mosquitoes can be more than just annoying. They spread West Nile Virus, and on Friday the Vermont Health Department announced Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) was confirmed in an emu from Brandon.
“This is the first time that EEE virus has been confirmed in a live animal in Vermont. No cases in people have been reported,” the Health Department said. Emus are particularly susceptible to the disease, said Erica Berl, an infectious disease epidemiologist with the Health Department.
Berl said there was no way to tell if the EEE finding was connected to Tropical Storm Irene, ’
“It’s tricky to say it’s related,” she said. EEE has persisted in animals in southeastern Massachusetts, and evidence of it has also been found in Maine and New Hampshire and Quebec.
In addition to emus, the EEE virus can cause illness in horses, alpacas, llamas and people. There is a vaccine for horses, and horse owners should discuss vaccination with their veterinarians, the Health Department said. The majority of people who might be infected with EEE virus will not become ill, however.
Berl said EEE is a “very sporadic” disease.
“It’s hard to predict what we can expect years from now,” she said.
Turmel is willing to make a prediction, however: Until the weather cools down or the wind starts whipping, we’re in for a biting fall.
Mosquitoes are active until the temperatures fall around 50-55 degrees, when their metabolism slows down and they stop flying, he said. With forecasts of temperatures in the 60s and 70s for the rest of the week, leaf peepers and hikers shouldn’t expect immediate relief.
Because mosquitoes’ lifespan is four to eight weeks, Turmel said they will be with us until a hard frost kills the mosquitoes and ends the outbreak.
That’s bad news for one of his insect trappers, whom he sent up to Highgate and Swanton in the marshy areas of northern Lake Champlain to get samples. The mosquitoes took a lot of samples of their own.
“He couldn’t believe how bad they were,” said Turmel. He quipped,” He was sucked dry.”
Aside from covering up and putting on that bug net usually reserved for black fly season in May, the mosquito outbreak leaves Vermonters in the unusual position of actually looking forward to colder temperatures instead of enjoying Indian Summer.
“We’re all hoping for a cold snap,” said Cate.
