2023-05-31 04:00:00
No sooner have the first rays of sunshine settled on our beautiful city, no sooner are you looking forward to the first warm evenings on the terrace than they are there! Klosterneuburg is moaning about Gelsen, not just since today – forever! But that was rarely the case as quickly as the bloodsuckers attacked us this year. Why is that and how can you counteract it?
Ecologist Bernhard Seidel has been researching and developing mosquitoes for several decades, of which there are around 40 different species in Austria. In Klosterneuburg it is above all the flood flies that spoil the summer evenings for us. It comes with the flood and a few days ago there was enough of that again. Nationwide rainfall and light flooding without frost – these are the conditions in which mosquitoes reproduce extremely well. “If we already notice them in an unpleasant way, then it can become extreme in the autumn. Only a dry summer could remedy that,” Seidel knows.
You have to imagine it like this: 95 percent of mosquitoes never come to lay their eggs. But the remaining five percent is enough to keep the stock. Bernhard Seidel, ecologist
“These creatures put all their energy into their own population,” says the ecologist, explaining the massive occurrence of mosquitoes. “You have to imagine it like this: 95 percent of the mosquitoes never come to lay their eggs. But the remaining five percent is enough to keep the stock.”
What is the dangerous thing about the unloved bloodsuckers? “Nothing at all, they’re just annoying,” assures Seidel, “They could only become dangerous if they transmit diseases. But they can do that too. If a female carries a virus, she can pass the virus on. A female has billions of offspring.”
But basically there would be no dangerous mosquitoes. It is much more the human being who moves and settles in the habitat of the mosquitoes. Gelsen problem is man-madeSo it is with the spread of the tiger mosquito in Austria. It’s more of a nuisance because it’s also active during the day and doesn’t just come over us at dusk. The East Asian mosquito is more survivable and superior to the native mosquitoes. Due to the brisk trade, it would come to us and be there faster when it gets warm.
According to Seidel, this has little or nothing to do with the climate. Humans themselves would provide the niches that mosquitoes choose. Seidel: “Many factors favor the mosquito population. For example, flood protection systems should be built in the future in such a way that water accumulation is avoided.”
Instead, in some areas – not in Klosterneuburg – poison is released by helicopter, which the ecologist Seidel doesn’t believe in at all: “I can kill 90 percent of the mosquitoes with it, but the remaining ten percent are enough for the mosquitoes to continue to multiply. “
What shall we do? “The mosquito represents one of the highest stages of evolution. You should put a stop to it and finally listen to the people who know their stuff. An improvement of the environment can only happen through nature. It is therefore necessary to consider how we can proceed intelligently,” concludes the ecologist Bernhard Seidel.
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