蜜柚直播

ST. LOUIS 鈥� Mosquito season in the St. Louis area was particularly bad last year. A combination of spring rains and pools of standing water created a ripe environment for the nuisance bugs to reproduce and spread.

Damage from the devastating tornado in May will likely make this year worse in the city, experts say, as water pooling in piles of debris could create the perfect breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitoes, especially as temperatures rise.

鈥淲hen you have a storm like that come through, some of that debris is going to collect and hold water and turn into mosquito habitats,鈥� said James Sayers, supervisor of St. Louis County鈥檚 Vector-Borne Disease Prevention Program. 鈥淓ven things like kiddie pools or buckets that are scattered is enough.鈥�

The mile-wide May 16 tornado cut across St. Louis, hitting parts of the Central West End, Forest Park and into north St. Louis neighborhoods. Trees were uprooted, structures toppled and roofs torn off, leaving household contents in yards and streets. Five people were killed.

The 蜜柚直播 National Guard has opened four debris collection sites in the area, and the state approved an injection of $750,000 into wages for area workers helping the cleanup effort. But even while officials take strides to pick up the rubble, it won鈥檛 be complete before mosquito season is in full swing.

鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a hunk of time before that debris is cleaned up,鈥� said Jane Ponzi, the green resources manager at the 蜜柚直播 Botanical Garden. 鈥淎nd once it gets hotter, breeding is only going to speed up.鈥�

Typically, the most ideal temperature for mosquito reproduction is between 80 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, she said. And with heightened breeding in the warm summer months comes the threat of disease, especially from a species called the Culex.

The vast majority of mosquito species in the United States 鈥� some 200, 鈥� don鈥檛 carry diseases. But in the St. Louis area, the Culex, alongside the Aedes aegypti, is known to be a carrier for St. Louis encephalitis and West Nile virus, Ponzi said.

And like other mosquito species, it breeds around standing water.

Usually, when extreme, windy storms come through, standing water is disrupted, making it difficult for the Culex to reproduce in their usual 7-10 day cycle.

鈥淚t鈥檚 when we have slow, steady rains and it鈥檚 prolonged that we start having diseases,鈥� Sayers said.

It鈥檚 still too early to fully know the potential scope of diseased mosquitoes in the tornado鈥檚 path. Mosquito season, which usually lasts from late April to September, is still too early in its progression, and temperatures haven鈥檛 risen enough yet.

To monitor and address the spread of mosquito-borne disease, Sayers鈥� team oversees 240 different traps across the county, mostly in parks and around standing water. When trapped mosquitoes test positively for disease, workers fog the population centers with chemicals harmful for mosquitoes, called adulticide.

In St. Louis, though, Sayers鈥� team can鈥檛 test for or treat diseased mosquito populations. Anything within city limits falls under the jurisdiction of the St. Louis Vector Control department 鈥� distinct from St. Louis County鈥檚, which has nearly 20 staffers.

The city doesn鈥檛 receive operational aid from the county鈥檚 team, like most of the area municipalities, instead depending on its own resources to control mosquitoes.

If the city鈥檚 decimated north side neighborhoods become a mosquito breeding ground, it will present a challenge, officials said.

鈥淏ecause so much of the damage has been on private property, it makes it difficult to clean up,鈥� Ponzi said. 鈥淭hese are locations that are going to be really hard to address.鈥�

St. Louis officials did not give answers to questions about their plans for mosquito control.

Compared to the county, which has seen relative success in controlling mosquito-borne diseases in the past, the city has appeared to struggle 鈥� even without the tornado debris.

St. Louis has consistently seen more probable and confirmed cases of West Nile Virus per 100,000 people than St. Louis County, a marker of the city鈥檚 potential difficulty managing other mosquito-borne diseases such as St. Louis encephalitis.

Though in most years between 2014 and 2023 the city has reported a fewer total number of cases of West Nile Virus than the county (9 in the county versus 4 in the city), the relatively small size of the city鈥檚 population compared to St. Louis County indicates a problem, according to a made last year.

In that time, St. Louis reported an average of about 1.25 cases per 100,000 people a year compared to the county鈥檚 0.33 and 蜜柚直播鈥檚 statewide 0.26, according to a Post-Dispatch analysis of and data.

鈥淭hey have a smaller area and population,鈥� Sayers said, 鈥渂ut they have more human cases per capita than anywhere in the county.鈥�