A species of mosquito previously unknown in Italy has been causing havoc on Lake Garda for a week. People are fleeing into their houses. It is an intruder from the north.
Peschiera – Late summer is the best time for many tourists at Lake Garda. The hustle and bustle of the summer season is over, the weather is calmer and it is no longer so hot – but still warm enough to go into the pleasantly warm water of Italy’s largest lake. The locals also love the time before autumn arrives.
But since last week, a plague that has been unknown to the lake so far has been plaguing holidaymakers and residents of the area. As the portal larena.it reports that on Saturday (September 7) “small mosquito-like insects” suddenly appeared during the day in an area between Lazise, Castelnuovo and Peschiera on the southern lake. “People tried by all means, often in vain, to get rid of the small animals in order to avoid being bitten,” it says.
Mosquito plague on Lake Garda: People are waving their arms around like crazy
The situation reached its peak in the early afternoon. “Many citizens who were in green spaces or in their gardens had to flee into their homes,” the portal continues. Even in the Gardaland amusement park, visitors were bothered by the insects, which suddenly appeared in swarms. A video documents how the guests there thrashed around wildly.
The phenomenon affected both the surface of the lake and the shore, which was particularly noticeable for bathers. One thing was clear: these were not the mosquitoes that Italians are so familiar with, the “zanzare”, but tiny black mosquitoes, two to six millimetres in size, that are similar to houseflies. The culprits were identified very quickly: “I contacted the environmental office and the veterinary service to find out more”, explains Filippo Gavazzoni, vice-mayor of Peschiera and responsible for protecting the lake, to larena.it. “I was unofficially told that based on the description they are black flies: It’s quite strange.”
Blackfly alarm: The culprit at Lake Garda comes from the far north
Black flies are an extremely unpleasant species that was originally widespread in Scandinavia and has plagued forest workers there since time immemorial, but has also spread to Germany in recent years. They love bodies of water, where they breed primarily in warm water. Lake Garda currently has a water temperature of 23 degrees. Complaints have also increased in southern Germany in recent years. The black flies tear a tiny wound in the skin with their biting tools and then suck blood with their proboscis.
Leonardo Latella, zoologist and director of the natural history collections at the Natural History Museum in Verona, explains: “The fact that the climate As the weather gets warmer and there is more rainfall, it will certainly make things easier for aquatic insects, which love warm water.” Alan Faini, a fisherman from Peschiera, had a real battle with the insects on his boat: “You don’t notice when you enter the swarm, they are so small that they attack you immediately, and once they have settled on your body, they don’t go away, as if they were fleas,” he told the portal.
Fisherman from Lake Garda reports: “These mosquitoes are driving me crazy!”
Faini continued: “I have been a fisherman for 40 years and have seen many mosquitoes, but this is the first time.” On Friday (6 September) he went out around midday and turned back after 20 minutes because these insects had attacked him. “In the afternoon I hung the mosquito nets on the boat and dressed properly: socks and long trousers, a long-sleeved shirt and a hat.” But it was all in vain: “There was nothing to be done, they came everywhere and I had to work in really difficult conditions, they were driving me crazy!”
Researchers from Goethe University and the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center in Frankfurt am Main had only just announced in February Spread of the black fly in Germany. There was no mention of Italy at that time. In contrast to last year, when Lake Garda had historically low water levels, this year the water is more than full due to the constant rainfall in the Alps. After a storm, there was even a norovirus alarm.
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