New exotic mosquito showed up in Belgium | Abroad

The Culiseta longiareolata feels at home from the Azores to Central Asia, but nowadays it can also be seen closer to home. Over the past ten years, the mosquito has been popping up more and more in Western and Central Europe, such as Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The mosquito was rarely observed as far north as in the study by the ITM team that monitors exotic mosquito species, the MEMO project, and discovered the mosquito in Belgium between 2017 and 2019.

Still, the researchers were not surprised. “The confirmed presence of Cs. longiareolata in Belgium and the Netherlands was not unexpected,” says Isra Deblauwe, entomologist at ITM. “But this mosquito has a preference for birds. The risk of mosquito bites is very small and the chance of disease transmission in humans is therefore also very low.”

The presence of the mosquito could point to climate change. Rising temperatures and warmer winters promote the spread of exotic mosquito species and therefore also their pathogens. Globalization also plays a role. The study points to ground and air traffic, the import of used car tires and fresh flowers as possible routes of the mosquito to our southern neighbors and possibly all of our country.

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