Tiger mosquitoes found in 5 Dutch municipalities

Tiger mosquitoes were found in five Dutch municipalities so far this year. This happened in Amstelveen, Assen, Lelystad, Moerdijk and Sittard. In addition, a number of yellow fever mosquitoes were found in Haarlemmermeer (Schiphol), reported the foundation platform Stop invasive exotics, which keeps track of the mosquito figures. The foundation relies on data from the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).

The tiger mosquito and yellow fever mosquito are animals that do not originate in the Netherlands. They can spread various viral diseases in humans and animals, such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya, yellow fever, West Nile virus and various forms of encephalitis. The critters probably came along with imported car tires and bamboo plants.

Supervisor NVWA states on its website where and when the exotic mosquitoes were found. How many mosquitoes were found per find will be announced at the end of the year.

Last year tiger mosquitoes were found in ten municipalities and yellow fever mosquitoes in two places. This involved 585 tiger mosquitoes and 34 yellow fever mosquitoes.

The tiger mosquito is a lot smaller than an ordinary mosquito and has black with white stripes. The yellow fever mosquito, which stings mainly in the day, is 3 to 4 millimeters in size. This exotic mosquito is dark colored and has white stripes on the legs.