Vampires in the Day: What's eating you?

Blood-sucking creatures of legend typically fly in the night, feasting on the blood of townsfolk as they sleep, but a new deadly creature is advancing Northward, into New England and it feasts in the day. Vampires share many qualities with our common blood-sucking mosquito, they dislike direct sunlight and prefer to eat at dusk, dawn, and in the dark of night. However an invasive mosquito, the Asian Tiger Mosquito - named for its striped black and white body - does not share the vampires weakness, it will feed at any time day or night, from dawn until dusk, and from dusk until dawn. The news isn’t all bad, Asian Tiger Mosquito cannot tolerate cold weather, and had been restricted to South of New Jersey as of 1997. However, due to increasing temperatures, the Asian Tiger Mosquitoes range is increasing, and it has been found in southern Connecticut, and is predicted to hit the Ocean State by the year 2020 at the latest!

This blood-sucker doesn’t just take your blood when they feed, they also can leave something behind. The Asian Tiger Mosquito, along with other mosquitoes, transmits diseases including Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever, and Chikungunya Fever. There are currently no cases of Dengue fever in the United States, however, Yellow Fever and Chikungunya fever have been found as recently as this year. So what can you do? For starters, clean your gutters. Rain gutters and other stagnant water sources, as small as a tablespoon can breed mosquitoes. This won’t stop the Asian Tiger Mosquito from coming further North, but it will help decrease their numbers in your backyard.