By Eleonora Longo, Chiara Virgillito, Carlo Maria De Marco, Chiara Gentile, Martina Micocci, Paola Serini, Verena Pichler, Francesco Severini, Fabrizio Montarsi, Francesco Gradoni, Federico Filipponi, Frederic Bartumeus, John Palmer, Mattia Manica, Daniel Da Re, Roberto Rosa, Beniamino Caputo, and Alessandra Della Torre
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The Asian Tiger mosquito is entering homes in Europe much more often than previously thought, according to our analysis of thousands of mosquito photos submitted by citizen scientists in Italy and Spain.
Originally from Asia, the Asian Tiger mosquito has spread widely across Europe in recent decades. Its bites are more than just a nuisance: the mosquito’s bite can transmit viruses that cause diseases such as dengue and chikungunya. As cases of these diseases become more frequent in southern Europe, understanding where people are most likely to encounter and be bitten by Tiger mosquitoes is increasingly important.
In its native range, the Tiger mosquito is generally considered an outdoor-biting species. We therefore wanted to know whether this is also true in Europe, or whether the mosquito regularly enters people’s homes. However, studying mosquitoes inside private homes is difficult because researchers cannot routinely enter people’s premises to look for them. Citizen science provided a solution. Using the Mosquito Alert smartphone app, thousands of people in Italy and Spain photographed mosquitoes they encountered and reported where they found them.
We analysed more than 21,000 photographs submitted through the app. More than half of the photographs of Tiger mosquitoes were taken indoors. Surprisingly, Tiger mosquitoes were reported indoors more frequently than the common house mosquito, a species well known for entering homes and biting people indoors.
Our findings show that the risk of encountering Tiger mosquitoes in Europe is not limited to outdoor spaces. Measures to prevent mosquito bites should therefore also be considered inside homes, particularly during outbreaks of viral diseases such as dengue or chikungunya.
