The Best Guide for the Neston Area

Dr Peter Enevoldson Provides the First Mosquito Forecast of 2024

Published: 11th April 2024 20:45

11.04.24: Update from Dr Peter Enevoldson

Adult mosquitoes were starting to appear last week but the very windy weather earlier this week will have dispersed them. I expect the mosquito biting nuisance to be low.

The marsh breeding pools were full of advanced larvae and pupae until the very high tides earlier this week which inundated the pools and washed out huge numbers of larvae. The fate of those larvae is variable: undoubtedly many will have been washed out to sea but others persist in the extensive expanses of water still present on the marshes, effectively merging many of the usual pools. The larvae have been dispersed. As the water slowly drains or dries up, some larvae will be funnelled back into the long-standing pools and will survive, whilst some will be left "high and dry" and will die. Overall the numbers remaining in the pools are significantly reduced. 

However we know that new sea water triggers synchronous "hatching" of eggs which have lain dormant in the mud around the edge of the breeding pools over the last year or more. So the life cycle continues. Depending on temperatures, those new larvae will probably take 3-4 weeks to mature to adults, assuming the pools remain wet and do not dry up in the meantime!

Lastly it is notable that many other species of insects are also beginning to appear, and the vast majority of flying insects you may see are not mosquitoes.

 

 

 

 

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