Asian Tiger Mosquitoes Discovered in Michigan for Second Time
For the second straight year, Asian tiger mosquitoes have been found in Michigan. The mosquito is capable of spreading the Zika virus and other viruses.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced the discovery of the mosquito this week. They emphasized that there is no evidence of Zika or other exotic virus-infected mosquitoes in Michigan or the United States this year.
The presence of the mosquito was confirmed on August 16 in an industrial area in southern Romulus. The mosquito was found in Michigan for the first time in August of 2017 in an industrial area of Livonia. It is not expected that the potentially dangerous mosquito survived last winter. Instead it is likely that the mosquitoes traveled in commercial products shipped from other states where the mosquitoes have become established. Those states include Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. The Asian tiger mosquito has also been found in Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Windsor, Ontario.
The mosquito is not established in Michigan and those found in Michigan have not carried deadly disease, but with the mosquito established in so many surrounding areas continued or increased discoveries of Asian tiger mosquitoes would not come as a surprise.