Mosquitoes Swarm as Weather Turns Cooler

[Anchor]

Many of you have probably noticed that even though the weather has turned cooler, mosquitoes seem to have increased. With record-breaking heat waves and monsoon rains keeping mosquitoes quiet in the middle of summer, they were forecasted to run rampant with the arrival of autumn. You will need to watch out for autumn mosquitoes for the time being.

Reporter Han Sung-hee has the story.

[Reporter]

On the day before yesterday (September 2), after rain fell in Seoul for three consecutive days and finally stopped, workers collected mosquitoes captured by urban mosquito monitoring equipment.

[Kang Hyo-jung / Researcher, Sahmyook University Environmental Ecology Research Institute : (Can you see mosquitoes flying around here now?) Yes, that is correct. Looking at it now, the yellowish ones are likely to be members of the Culex pipiens complex.]

In just about 10 minutes, mosquitoes swarmed here and there.

[(Two of them landed here.)]

The captured mosquitoes were transferred to a laboratory for analysis.

[Kang Hyo-jung / Researcher, Sahmyook University Environmental Ecology Research Institute : These are house mosquitoes. They are species that can be frequently seen indoors.]

Today, the number of mosquitoes collected from equipment at 55 locations in Seoul averaged over 51 per location.

This is a 1.5-fold increase compared to a week ago.

Mosquitoes, which are cold-blooded animals, are most active in laying eggs and moving around when temperatures are around 25°C (77°F). As autumn temperatures rise due to climate change and other factors, autumn mosquitoes have been showing a trend of increasing year by year.

Back in 2015, mosquitoes were overwhelmingly abundant in August, but starting in 2018, September mosquitoes surpassed August mosquitoes.

In particular, this year, puddles dried up due to heat waves and droughts, reducing mosquito egg-laying in early August. However, after mid-August, precipitation increased, leading to an increase in egg-laying as well.

This is because rainwater pooled in various places, creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

When mosquitoes lay eggs in these puddles formed after rain, the eggs grow into adult mosquitoes two weeks later, increasing the population.

Now that the so-called "secondary monsoon" has ended this week, the mosquito population is likely to increase even further.

[Kang Hyo-jung / Researcher, Sahmyook University Environmental Ecology Research Institute : (In previous years as well,) as the heat wave subsided and temperatures dropped slightly, mosquitoes showed a trend of gradually increasing. (This year,) I think mosquitoes will likely increase around mid-to-late September.]

Simply eliminating standing water around the house periodically to block the environment where larvae can grow helps reduce the mosquito population.

(Camera Reporter: Yoon Hyung | Video Editor: Kim Yoon-sung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.