Transplant mosquitoes Asian tiger mosquito is native to Germany

Mosquito seems to overwinter already in southern Germany

Asian tiger mosquitoes are considered the most important carriers of chikungunya and dengue fever and are therefore among the most dreaded insects. So far, the animals were mainly distributed in the tropics and subtropics and in southern Europe. But now, the mosquito could also be home in this country. As the responsible Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) reports, indications of hibernation and settlement have already been found in southern Germany.

Native to the Mediterranean since the 1990s
The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is a mosquito between two and ten millimeters in size, which is easily identifiable by its black-and-white pattern and striped hind legs. Originally native to the South and Southeast Asian tropics and subtropics, it has succeeded in recent decades among others by transports of plants and travel throughout the world and has been in the southern Europe since the 1990s. The Asian tiger mosquito is feared above all as a carrier of dangerous diseases such as chikungunya and dengue fever. In addition, it is active during the day compared to other mosquitoes and is considered unusually aggressive.

Eggs and larvae found in the east of Freiburg
Now, the mosquito is apparently spreading more and more to the north and could possibly according to the competent Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) in Greifswald also be native to this country. As the institute reports, eggs, larvae, pupae and adult mosquitoes have been found again in eastern Freiburg in the last two weeks. "These findings indicate a hibernation and settlement of the Asian tiger mosquito," said FLI spokeswoman Elke Reinking to the news agency "dpa".

Already last year researchers had found a population in the same place. In addition, it has been observed for years that individual specimens of the usually thermophilous mosquito travel by long-distance transport from southern Europe to Germany, the report continues. But so far the mosquito did not manage to overwinter in this country due to lack of cold resistance of the eggs and to become at home.

Mosquitoes benefit from the exceptionally mild winter
However, the situation changed as a result of the extremely mild winter of 2014/2015, because "the likelihood of successful wintering is extraordinarily high," write the experts from the FLI. Now Genetic kinship analyzes between the last year and the currently found mosquitoes confirm the assumption.

There is no reason to worry about the potential transmission of dangerous diseases. Rather, even if the species is established, the risk is minimal, "because the mosquitoes are not infected per se," the report says. For a female to be able to pass on a pathogen, it must first take in the pathogens via the blood of an infected person. However, such sources of infection are rare, moreover, there are only "minimal chances" that the pathogen survives in the mosquito and meet again at the next blood meal on a human. Here, however, the probability increases with an increasing population density of mosquitoes. (No)

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