From Fox26
December 20, 2017
Flowers at gravesites help us pay tribute to loved ones – and even celebrate holidays with them.
But the final resting place for so many can also be a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
“If you add up all the graves and tombstones and items that are there, it adds up to hundreds of thousands of containers that are potential breeding issues,” says Ryan McNeil, District Manager for Fresno Mosquito and Vector Control District.
It’s leading the fight against the invasive species of mosquito known as Aedis Aegypti — the same mosquito that’s been known to carry the Zika Virus and Dengue.
“There are some very real diseases that are for the first time in Fresno County. Not just from people traveling to Mexico or India,” McNeil says.
He says that people need to start exercising the same caution they take in the summer, by emptying standing water.
This mosquito species thrives in cold weather, too.
“We have found them in everything from vases to unused flower pots to even bottle caps left right side up with rain in it,” McNeil says.