In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
The next global pandemic could be spread by mosquitoes. We expect our local mosquito control district to do its job without flummery, dupery and nincompoopery, with few or no flubdubs, as Lincoln would call them. We must extirpate wasteful spending wherever it occurs, as good environmental stewards. It is up to us. From The Washington Post.
Mosquitoes are swarming around Houston. The future could bring even more.
After severe rain washed much of Texas, residents are enduring another inundation — of mosquitoes.
A mosquito lands on a child at a park in Roman Forest, Tex., north of Houston, on Thursday. (Danielle Villasana for The Washington Post)
Listen
5 min
Share
Comment204
Add to your saved stories
Save
CONROE, Tex. — Standing in his neatly manicured front yard in this Houston suburb, Mitch Varley stopped for a moment and slapped his right arm. Did he get the mosquito in time before it bit? Not that it matters, really, because there will be another.
“If you open the car door to go somewhere, you’ve got 10 mosquitoes inside,” said Varley.
The native Texan has lived north of Houston, in Montgomery County, since 2015 and said he’s never seen mosquitoes this bad. “I’d like to get rid of them, but with all this rain that we’ve had, what are you going to do?” he said.
After flood-inducing rain pummeled much of Texas over the past few weeks, another sort of inundation is now swamping the Houston region: Mosquitoes. Lots of them. More than many longtime residents can ever remember.
On Thursday, another powerful storm swept through the area, downing trees and power lines, and leaving more than 900,000 residents without power at one point.
Mosquitoes have always thrived around Houston. Because the area’s landscape is relatively flat, many streets are lined with ditches to capture and drain stormwater into a network of bayous or slow-moving rivers that feed into Galveston Bay. Along those routes, there are plenty of nooks and crannies that make for ideal mosquito breeding grounds.
But “as it gets warmer earlier, we see a larger amount of mosquitoes earlier,” said Max Vigilant, director of mosquito and vector control in Harris County, where Houston is located. “We are getting hotter temperatures earlier.”
“This is the impact that climate change has had on Harris Country,” Vigilant added.
As the world gets warmer and — in many areas — wetter, scientists worry that human-caused climate change may turn more places into perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Higher temperatures oftenmake the pests hungrier for human blood and allow them to expand their territory. Increased rainfall gives them more pools of standing water in which to procreate. Many types of mosquitoes wait for just this moment to spring to life.
Controlling the swarm
Puddles in Houston's Heights neighborhood on Friday, a day after a powerful storm moved through. (Danielle Villasana for The Washington Post)
Texas is soaked after storms over the past three weeks submerged roadways and homes, edged rivers to near-record levels, and caused deadly flooding. In the Houston area, the pests are now flourishing in the soggy soil and pavement puddles that have yet to dry up, leading many locals to declare this an unusually bad mosquito season.
Vigilant, the public health official, has heard it before. To many residents, every year feels like the worst mosquito year, he said, though sampling so far suggests mosquito levels comparable to those in 2022 and 2023.
It is next to impossible to fully count an insect population. But in tests last week, between 50 and 70 mosquitoes a minute were landing on staffers in some spots in Harris County, Vigilant said.
Harris County, where it is warm enough to find the insects year-round, is home to more than 50 species of mosquito. “Houston is never completely mosquito-free,” said Sonja Swiger, an entomologist at Texas A&M.
But the warmer months are when they truly thrive. Some lay their eggs directly in standing pools of water. Others place them in the soil and other dry areas that fill up later, with some eggs waiting up to a year to hatch. “That’s the level of intelligence of a mosquito,” Vigilant said.
Harris County Public Health, where Vigilant works, focuses on sprayingpesticide for those mosquitoes that can carry West Nile virus and a half-dozen other diseases for which it tests.
“Our most important one is West Nile virus,” Swiger said. “We do have to worry about that every year.”
As of Thursday, the public health department has not detected any of the pathogens. Health officials encourage residents to turn over or throw out birdbaths, old tires and other items in which water can accumulate. And of course, apply plenty of Environmental Protection Agency-approved repellent.Local doctors even recommend putting nets over strollers to protect infants from bites.
Enduring mosquito season
Sunscreen and insect repellent for sale at a grocery store in Houston. ( Danielle Villasana for The Washington Post)
Before Linda Adams begins her morning walk with her dog, Tater Tot, she makes sure to douse herself in bug spray. “It has to be at least 40 percent DEET,” Adams said. “It’s the only way I can get through the day.”
Adams sprays herself anytime she steps outside. She collects rainwater for her garden, but with the recent surge in mosquitoes, she makes a point to dump her rainwater collection every day unless she’s going to use it. She doesn’t want to give mosquitoes any more chances of breeding.
The nuisance insects have also made their way into her house, something she said has never happened before. This week, she sat in her recliner swatting them away as she watched TV.
“They are attracted to me. No one else gets mosquitoes like me,” Adams quipped. “I was also a redhead as a child. I think that has something to do with it.”
There is little reprieve, no matter the time of day.
Josue Medina, a tennis instructor in Conroe, had just finished a morning tennis lesson when he stopped to point at a large red welt above his right knee. “This right here,” he said. “This one got me yesterday.”
As a full-time instructor, Medina spends four or more hours on a tennis court during the day, which means he’s all too familiar with the swarm of mosquitoes plaguing the Houston area. Not only are there a lot this year, said Medina, but they’re bigger.
The evening lessons are particularly bad, said Medina, who claims he has “blood that mosquitoes love.” One night this week when he arrived around 7, he said, mosquitoes immediately swarmed his legs.
“The mosquito season is always bad, but right now it’s worse,” he said.
Dino Grandoni is a reporter covering wildlife, biodiversity and other climate and environmental issues. He is the author of Animalia, a column exploring the strange and fascinating world of animals.Twitter
Rose Kennedy's favorite Bible verse was, "To whom much is given, much is expected." Alleged felonious assault on an Osceola County school board member by a former legislator and current lobbyist for Osceola County. Horner resigned from the legislature under a cloud of a prostitution ring investigation in 2012. Wikipedia reports: "On September 24, 2012, Horner was running for re-election when he suddenly resigned from the Florida House of Representatives after his name surfaced on a list of brothel clients in evidence against an accused prostitution ring leader.[2] In his resignation statement, Horner said "I deeply regret decisions I made that are causing my family unjustifiable pain and embarrassment."[3][4][5]".
What shady characters will Dull Republicans elect in Florida?
From Orlando Sentinel:
Lobbyist arrested, accused of battery on Osceola School Board member
Mike Horner, who is also a former state legislator, allegedly had a conflict with political foe Jon Arguello
Climate change denialist RONALD DION DeSANTIS has also signed legislation prohibiting local governments from protecting workers from dehydration -- no laws on water breaks. Sadistic anti-worker Republicans are setting the stage for a massive ripple of death among outdoor workers, including people working in agriculture, nurseries, landscaping and construction. Sick twists. From The Washington Post:
Record heat hits Florida, where DeSantis scrubbed ‘climate change’ from state laws
Key West registered a heat index of 115 — matching its highest on record. More record heat is forecast.
Updated May 16, 2024 at 2:49 p.m. EDT|Published May 16, 2024 at 10:37 a.m. EDT
Outreach specialist Ricky Leath talks with Bei Zhao as he distributes water and other supplies to the Miami area's homeless population during record heat. (Lynne Sladky/AP)
Scorching temperatures set numerous records across South Florida on Wednesday, and historically hot conditions for mid-May will persist through the weekend.
On Wednesday, Key West experienced a particularly brutal combination of heat and humidity, registering a heat index of 115 — matching the highest mark on record for any time of year.
The record heat comes after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday signed a bill scrubbing most references to climate change from state law. Critics say the measure, which will take effect July 1, ignores the threats Florida faces from extreme heat as well as powerful hurricanes and worsening toxic algae blooms.
Although South Florida is accustomed to warm, humid weather much of the year, this brutal combination of heat and humidity has little precedent in May.
Air temperatures reached the mid- to upper 90s Wednesday, while heat indexes, a measure of how hot it feels factoring in humidity, topped 105 degrees in many areas.
The air temperature in Miami reached 96, while Hollywood hit 100, both records.
The National Weather Service’s HeatRisk index continues to call for major to extreme heat-related impacts in South Florida on Thursday into the weekend, when heat indexes are again predicted to surpass 105 near the coast, where abnormally warm waters make it particularly muggy.
Human-caused climate change is helping to intensify this heat. Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index indicates that it is making the ongoing extreme heat three to four times more likely.
Extreme heat indexes
Temperature records wasted away again in Margaritaville on Wednesday. If verified (and there’s no reason it won’t be), the 115 heat index observed in Key West will tie the highest mark ever recorded there, according to Miami-based meteorologist Brian McNoldy.
The average heat index at this time of year in Key West is in the low to mid-90s. Ordinarily, the highest heat indexes occur between July and mid-September.
In coastal South Florida, heat indexes of at least 105 spanned from Venice southward on the west coast and from Palm Beach to Miami and the Keys on the east coast. Inland heat indexes generally ranged from 100 to 105.
Nights aren’t offering much relief. On Thursday morning, heat indexes dipped only to around 90 in Miami and the low 90s in Key West, and little change is predicted over the next several days.
Maximum hourly heat index in South Florida on May 15. (Capital Weather Gang)
Records
Among locations that have a long history of climate observations, here’s a rundown of where record highs occurred in South Florida on Wednesday:
West Palm Beach — 98 degrees, topping 94 in 1995.
Fort Lauderdale — 96 degrees, topping 95 in 1938.
Miami — 96 degrees, topping 96 in 1995.
Key West — 92 degrees, topping 90 in 1991.
Even more locations set record-warm lows, and they expanded into northern Florida. Among them: 83 in Key West; 81 in Miami and West Palm Beach; 77 in Tampa; and 74 in Jacksonville and Orlando.
The heat index forecast for Saturday afternoon. (weatherbell.com)
Key West posted its third calendar day record-warm low in a row Wednesday, including two days of 83 degrees, which matched the highest recorded in May. This southernmost city in the Lower 48 may end up with a week straight of record-warm morning lows, all in the 80s, before the heat eases.
ort Lauderdale’s record high Wednesday was its fourth of the past week, including the record for any day in May when it hit 98 on Saturday, topping 97 in May 1971. The city has also notched 11 record-warm lows in a row as of Wednesday, and Tuesday’s low of 85 tied the warmest on record in any month.
Fort Myers also set a record for its warmest May morning, with a low of 82 on Wednesday, surpassing the old mark of 79.
Between Thursday and the weekend, forecasts call for record highs and record-warm lows in many of the same places as Wednesday. West Palm Beach, Miami and Key West are all likely to set many more heat records in the days to come.
Maxine Joselow and Jason Samenow contributed to this report.
Ian Livingston is a forecaster/photographer and information lead for the Capital Weather Gang. By day, Ian is a defense and national security researcher at a D.C. think tank.Twitter
