Impressive invasion of mosquitoes on the Coast: they surprised tourists with a 'tornado' on the route

Guillermo Villarreal

02/24/2021 7:25 PM

• Clarín.com

• Society

Updated 02/25/2021 8:40 AM

"Tremendous! I had a barbecue at noon and the

mosquitoes

almost

took the meat", jokes a Pinamar neighbor besieged by an invasion of insects that so many days of rain and heat produced a huge phenomenon.

They bother, sting, do not transmit dengue and it is not an exaggeration to speak

of mosquito whirlpools

.

In fact, this can be seen in a video recorded on the way to the seaside resort that captures the moment when

a small tornado sweeps away a cloud of mosquitoes

and, to the disbelief of motorists, it adopts the funnel shape that characterizes such wind phenomena. 

"Who is going to believe that these are mosquitoes?", The driver wonders as he transits Route 74, which connects

General Madariaga

with

Pinamar

, before the "tornado".

"It's getting bigger and bigger, I've

never seen anything like this in my life

," the woman who accompanies him is surprised. 

The images were filmed on Monday, when the invasion was at its peak and bad weather still prevailed.

It rained a lot there.

On February 12, 200 millimeters fell in three hours when the annual average is 569 millimeters.

The gale had its consequences and the ground never finished draining all the water: small wetlands, water bodies, floods, puddles were formed in the forest, ideal places for the females to lay their eggs.   

The veterinarian Federico Barone, director of the Zoonosis area of ​​the Municipality of Pinamar, explained to

Clarín

that the first two days it was difficult to go for a walk.

"You open the car door and ten, fifteen mosquitoes get in," he

said.

The swarm proliferated in the forest like nowhere else.

Pinamar, Valeria del Mar, Ostend suffer from the invasion, which

in Cariló becomes unbearable

. 

"It is a mosquito with wild habits and here with so much water it found an optimal place and the eggs that are in the environment had the opportunity to

hatch all at the same time,

" he said.

Tuesday and Wednesday the sun was beautiful in Pinamar and although there are fewer, the invaders persist.

Barone explained that the species of mosquito, "slow-flying and easy to kill,"

has no relevance to public health

and clarified that it is not aedes aegypti, so it does not transmit dengue.

There is no one who does not talk about the annoying mosquitoes in the spa, and there are few who have not complained or demanded that the commune go out to fumigate, a fact that, said the director of Zoonosis, "does not make sense."

"The fumigation that is done from an adapted vehicle with a tank that sprays poison does not work. It eliminates a portion of mosquitoes where the truck passes, a few meters away, and only adults, the larvae and eggs are not affected, that is, that a while after the truck passes nothing changes ".

In addition, he said, the poison affects other insects that act as the mosquito's natural control.

So what is there to do?

"Just wait for it to happen," he

pointed out.

"The good thing about the phenomenon is that it should not be perpetuated by the mosquito's own life cycle, of 7 days. Today there is less than yesterday and soon we will have the normal mosquito population again."

For Barone, the whirlwind of mosquitoes taken on the route has to do with a meteorological phenomenon.

"They are not mosquitoes in attack formation," he joked, "the phenomenon grabs them all in flight and makes them look like this." 

In addition to being patient, Zoonosis recommends using mosquito nets on doors and windows and fighting them with the products on the market, which has become a challenge here.

Repellent creams and sprays are scarce, and when they appear their price causes a certain sting.

Mar del Plata.

Correspondent.

DD