Massive Mosquito Swarms Ready to Invade Spain’s Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol

GET the insect repellant ready – a new invasive mosquito species is poised to invade Spain!

Reports are coming in of swarms of mosquitoes coming down from France and flooding northern Spain. It is only a matter of days before they arrive in Spain’s Costa del Sol.

Aedes japonicus is an invasive vector mosquito from Southeast Asia which has been spreading across central Europe since the year 2000. Unlike the Asian Tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) present in Spain since 2004, there has been no record of them in the country until now that is!

As record temperatures are forecast for Spain in the month of August, Spanish nationals and British expats have been warned to expect swarms of these nasty new mosquitoes. “Aedes japonicus is a very invasive insect and is capable of transmitting diseases such as West Nile virus,” says an expert in transmittable diseases.

Scientists warn the new ‘pest’ has great potential to expand because it can adapt to cold weather and breed “in a wide range of aquatic habitats.” Watch the YouTube video below to see how the mosquito emerges.

“Aedes japonicus caught us by surprise because we didn’t see it coming, and we also don’t know how it got here,” explains Javier Lucientes, a professor at Zaragoza University who heads the Health Ministry’s entomology surveillance project.