Mosquitoes may be the troubling of Kendall’s summer barbecues and walking around Miami Beach, but Florida researchers are now seeing more obscure targets of insects.
Itchy bumps may feel like mosquitoes are targeting only humans, but most of the world’s 3,600 mosquito species are not particularly targeting humans, and are known in Florida, humans, birds, amphibians, brown anal-like reptiles, and pencil-sized lizard-like reptiles with Signetia’s orange galette. These lizards are fast and talented when they are out hunting insects, but they branch and leave until the night and become easy targets of mosquitoes.
Brown Anoles said Melissa Miller, an invasion ecologist at the University of Florida, “may be unconsciously helping humans by reducing the infection of serious pathogens to humans due to mosquito bites.”
Miller and her colleagues say the bad news about human health is that anol populations are squeezed out.
Decades ago, reptile collectors accidentally began a turf war by releasing Peter’s Rock Agama, whom they kept their pets in the wild. No matter how big a male hole technically called a dewlap makes it look bigger and more dangerous, the agama is up to three times the size of a small anole – I wasn’t impressed. Agama quickly spread, eating anol food, and sometimes their little cousins.
In many areas, anols have disappeared, and redheaded agamas are now bathed in the sun. Although neither lizard is known to carry diseases that mosquitoes can contract and pass on to humans, Miller says the problem is changes in their diet.
Few lizards to eat
Early in the evening and throughout the night, mosquitoes are unable to eat anols and usually sleep outside. They also cannot bite agama hidden in cracks and gaps as soon as the sun begins to set.
The menu has less lizard blood, and mosquitoes can bite birds more often, as Miller and her colleagues theorized. It is definitely the worst meal a mosquito can choose, at least from a human health perspective. Birds are the best host and multiplier of disease.
To test their hypothesis, the UF team caught mosquitoes at three specific locations that Agama took over and used DNA analysis to show the animals that insects feasted.
Next, Miller and her colleagues had to become experts in catching agile reptiles with sticks, nets and even bare hands. When the anol returned to its original habitat, the team again caught the mosquito. As the anol is back on the menu, researchers believe this second batch of mosquitoes will draw more blood from anonymity, not from disease-covered birds.
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In theory, it also means that fewer mosquitoes carry viruses that can harm humans.
Researchers are still waiting for results, but in a few months they will know exactly how mosquito birds and humans propagation works. They hope to increase their understanding of the unintended, harmful consequences of human change into the environment, like the more infamous Burmese pythons that destroyed small mammal populations of the Everglades.
Another factor is that massive combustion of fossil fuels warmed the planet by 2 degrees Fahrenheit on average. Whether mosquito-borne diseases are endemic in Florida, and not just linked to anols, but “whether mosquitoes are relying on global warming and are beginning to increase year-round mosquitoes,” said Dr. Joyty Somani, a specialist in the illness of my son, who breathed in before taking part in malaria, dengue. Last year’s commemorative hospital.
Miami-Dade mosquito control, Division Chief John Paul Mutebi also said he is worried that the warm climate allows mosquito species to spread to previously too cold areas, leading to the longest active seasons. Within the next 25 years, researchers predict that the US mosquito season will last two months longer than today.
“It’s really, really dangerous because towards the end of the transmission period, that’s when most of these mosquitoes are infected,” Dr. Mutebi told the Herald. “As the seasons go, they continue to pick up pathogens,” he said.
Dengue, Chikunguña, Zika and West Nile virus are one of the diseases Dr. Mutebi lists as worrying as Eastern Encephalitis. Also known as Triple E, the virus inflates the brain and kills about one in three patients. “If you don’t die from it, you’ll end up with some long-term effects,” Dr. Mutebi says, including permanent blindness, hearing loss, or other physical and mental disorders.
Currently, the chances of signing a Triple E are almost trivial. In 2023, Florida reported only two cases of human beings. However, catching mosquitoes with a locked-in disease is a number.
The more mosquitoes there are, the more important it is to maintain activity and chew all species. With Florida under attack by invasive species, from Burmese pythons to lionfish, UF researchers hope their outcome will help authorities direct resources towards the fight against Agama.
“Brown Anoles look like these small components of the ecosystem,” Miller said.
The story was originally published by the Miami Herald and shared in collaboration with the Multi-Newsroom Initiative, founded by the Florida Clemate Report Network, the Miami Herald, the Sun Sentinel, the Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media, and the Tampa Bay Times.
This Climate Report is funded by Florida International University, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the David and Christina Martin Family Foundation in a partnership with journalism fundraising partners. The Miami Herald retains editing control for all content.
