Tiger mosquitoes in Wake County are developing resistance to pyrethroids, a common insecticide used in residential and commercial mosquito control programs, according to researchers at North Carolina State University.
Martha Burford Reiskind said pyrethroids are used in mosquito-control applications rather than in typical DEET-based repellents used by consumers. "This is the sort of fogging sprays that you'll see," Burford Reiskind said.
NC State researchers Martha Burford Reiskind and Michael Reiskind said resistance has increased in Wake County, and they are working to better understand the causes.
"Our research is showing that while we are seeing alarming increases in the amount of resistance, we're not seeing resistance in every mosquito, which suggests that there's still susceptible mosquitoes out there for various reasons," Michael Reiskind said.
At the same time, state health officials are tracking West Nile virus after cases were reported this week in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area.
According to Emily Herring, a public health veterinarian, the virus does not spread from person to person, and fewer than 1% of infected people develop severe illness. "The reality of living in North Carolina is that you really can't avoid being bitten by mosquitoes when you're spending time outdoors," Herring said. "You want to make sure that you're protecting yourself as best as you can for mosquito bites at all times."
Health officials recommend prevention measures such as using EPA-approved repellents that contain DEET and wearing protective clothing to help reduce mosquito bites. Researchers said identifying insecticide resistance is a critical first step toward developing more effective ways to control mosquito populations. Martha Burford Reiskind and Michael Reiskind said they plan to continue studying how resistance develops.
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"We need a tool that will bring down mosquito populations really rapidly to protect human health," Martha Burford Reiskind said. "If we have resistant populations, we don't have that tool, which is our best tool for bringing populations down really fast."
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