Readers report numerous mosquitoes to us in different places in the region, from Lille to Bourbourg via Desvres and Avesnes-sur-Helpe. “ I’ve never had so many and it’s getting earlier and earlier “, ” there are many more of them than usual », you write to us.
Likewise, we have received several letters warning us of an abundance of ticks. “ Everyone says it, this year, there are a lot of them », Tells us, for example, a reader of Hazebrouck.
On the mosquito side…
What is it really ? “ We do not yet have precise figures on the subject », explains Théalie Dhellemmes. “ And what we see from a local point of view is not necessarily true at the global level. “.
However, certain conditions are met for mosquitoes to be numerous this year: “ for mosquitoes to thrive »reminds the insect specialist, you need both heat and humidity. However, the months of March and April were very rainy without being very cold.
“ They may be more present in the city than in the countryside », specifies Théalie Dhellemmes, because they have no predators. “ They grow on ponds in the countryside, some of them are naturally eaten by their predators, frogs and dragonflies. In cities, they reproduce in stagnant water, like saucers under plants and, without predators, can proliferate “. In addition, global warming naturally favors an increase in the number of mosquitoes: “ the warmer it is, the faster it develops, the shorter its life cycle and the more generations of mosquitoes follow one another “.
…and ticks
Unlike mosquitoes, ticks do not need water to develop, but they hate drought (which explains why there were fewer of them in 2022), and they also like humidity associated with average temperatures , neither too hot nor too cold. Here too, the climate of recent weeks may have been favorable to an earlier and massive arrival. The entomologist testifies “ I don’t have precise figures either, but in the field several colleagues have actually noted that we were observing more than usual “.
Widespread throughout France (even more in the Grand Est and Auvergne – Rhône – Alpes than in Hauts-de-France), ticks live in wooded and humid areas, tall grass in meadows, gardens and forest parks. or urban. 10% of them are infected with borreliosis, which transmits the dangerous Lyme disease to humans.
Increasingly, with milder winters, ticks may even be present all year round, as analyzed by experts from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
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