The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

HUGE “super-mosquitoes” expected to infest the state of Florida this summer will not impact the Bahamas according to Andrew Thompson, assistant director at the Department of Environmental Services.

The Psorophora Ciliate, commonly known as the Gallinipper, has a painful sting, can grow up to 20 times the size of an average mosquito, and lays its eggs at the edges of flood-prone areas.

Mr Thompson told The Tribune yesterday that a similar large mosquito has been in the Bahamas since 1903, temporarily “inhabiting puddles of water”.

However this mosquito, which belongs to the same family as the Gallinipper, doesn’t pose a significant threat to Bahamians because they are few in number and are often stifled during vector spraying routines.

“Not a significant amount of the mosquitoes are here in the Bahamas,” said Mr Thompson. “These mosquitos are a ferocious biter but not a disease carrier,” he added.

“They are larger than the normal mosquitoes and we’ve had them in the Bahamas since 1903.

“When we get reports of mosquito bite, the person might say ‘a very large mosquito bit me,’ but they won’t say a Psorophora bit me.

“But despite this we’ve noticed that we have these larger than normal mosquitoes from this family of mosquitoes here in the Bahamas and they have bitten persons before,” he said.

A large number of the super-mosquitoes are expected to hatch in Florida this summer given the projected rainfall there.

In the Bahamas, however, the mosquitoes are “indirectly targeted during fogging, which impacts all types of mosquitoes,” according to Mr Thompson.

“We try to treat the source. If we have a temporary body or bodies of water, we seek to use larvicide to kill the mosquito from its larva stage.

Larvicide for larvae is used because it messes with the development of mosquitoes, preventing them from moving to the adult stage. We also use adulticide for adult mosquitoes.”