Mosquitoes in BsAs

from the economist's buenos aires city newsletter...

Recent hot weather and high humidity have led to a plague of mosquitoes on Buenos Aires. When the insects first descended on the city, many feared they belonged to the Aedes aegypti species that transmits dengue fever, a potentially lethal disease. Argentina now has 118 confirmed cases of dengue and a further 414 people who may be infected. But scientists have assured porteños that these mosquitoes belong to the more common Ochlerotatus and Culex species. Experts say that though they are capable of transmitting encephalitis and West Nile disease, such mosquitoes are highly unlikely to do so here. Nonetheless, the bugs continue to make life miserable for the city’s residents, particularly at night. The government has advised citizens to beware leaving pools of stagnant water where the insects can reproduce.

oh, yeah... there have been some mosquitoes, all right... i can't make it from my front door to the sidewalk gate (about 5 meters) without having at least three or four alight on my bare legs, eager to dine... fortunately, they're not quite as bad as the article makes it sound, so, by burning the occasional mosquito coil, gassing myself out with raid every so often, and making sure any open windows are protected by mosquitero (what we in the northern hemisphere call window screens), life goes on pretty much as usual...

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