Photo courtesy of an 84th Street resident.
One of the nice things about frigid weather is that at least the mosquitoes go away. But not anymore!
The bionic mosquitoes of 84th Street between West End and Riverside, which we’ve written about several times before, are still hanging around even as the temperatures plunge. WNYC reports that residents are once again resorting to sleeping under mosquito nets to avoid the insatiable beasts.
“We get up in the middle of the night, let’s say at 1 a.m., and kill three, four mosquitoes,” said Joe, who has a two-year-old son and lives on that block. (Like many people interviewed for this story, he didn’t want to give his last name because he’s concerned about the resale value of his home). Then, he said, we “go to bed, two hours later we wake up again, kill three or four mosquitoes and so on — until it’s 8 a.m. and you’re definitely not rested.”
(LOVE the detail about staying anonymous to protect the value of his home, by the way!) This particular breed of mosquito, Culex Molestus, became famous for terrorizing Londoners during World War II. We first wrote about them in 2011, and since then the city has tried everything from flushing the sewers with larvicide to digging up the street to catch them. Earlier this year, we reported that residents on the block felt like the city wasn’t doing enough to solve the problem.
A resident held up a mosquito trap at a public meeting about the problem a few years ago.
But it hasn’t worked, and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal tells WNYC the problem is spreading to other areas of the neighborhood. The only solution, one expert says, is to go down into the sewers where they live in winter and confront the critters face to face (or face to tentacle).
Joe Conlon is with the American Mosquito Control Association, a not-for-profit education scientific exchange group. He said there’s only one thing to do.
“You’re going to have to get down into the sewers themselves and find out where they’re coming from,” he said. “It’s going to be labor intensive and it’s not going to be a pleasant process. But if they want to definitively get rid of the problem that’s what they’re going to have to do.”
I think some of them have been posting on this site….
Hahahah! This is the best comment all year.
Oh my gosh!! I can’t believe it!! What an honor, seriously. I don’t know what to say, this is so unexpected…
First, I’d like to thank God. I mean none of this would have been possible without Him.
Second, this doesn’t happen without the support and encouragement of countless others….So I would like to thank my family, my children, my manager, my whole team over at the Willam Morris Agency, they know who they are…all the contributors to this project: Bruce Bernstein, UWSHebrew, Dannyboy, Stevieboy, Sherman, B.B., UWS-er, Independent, all the people bickering about those schools, Helen Rosenthal, although I’m not really sure who that is, Eli Zabar, Jerry Seinfeld, Big Nick, Avi, the 86th St. crosstown, Monk, the homeless guy that lives in front of Victoria’s Secret and well, there are just to many to name so i’ll just say thanks to all of you.
Can’t wait until 2017!!
Leaving out the illegal booksellers on Broadway is akin to Hillary Swank not acknowledging her husband.
My apartment building on W 81st Street has been plagued by mosquitoes as well. I captured one in my bedroom just last week. I too have resorted to sleeping under mosquito nets. I wonder if this is the same breed of mosquitoes? Anyone else in the neighborhood having this problem?
Yes, this has been going on in the fall/winter since at least 2011. (We’re on West 80th.) They seem to strike mostly at night, and the bites/welts take several days to heal. They especially seem to bite the kids more, often the same mosquito will bite several times so you have a whole series of painful welts. (Much more painful than the typical summer mosquitoes.) And it’s not a case of simply making sure your windows and doors are closed; they get in despite all best efforts to keep them out.
Sleeping under mosquito netting?? really? Is that true. I think you might be exaggerating a little bit.
I mean, what is this, the upper savannah of Northern Gambia or something?? It’s the UWS?
Seriously though, if it’s that bad why not just put the mosquito netting up against the window? I don’t know.
Southern Gentleman – i am not exaggerating. I got window screens in the spring because we had such a problem with mosquitoes in past years. I thought I was safe from them all summer long even when I started getting mysterious bumps on my neck, scalp and face. I finally realized late summer that they were mosquito bites when I heard them next to my head in the middle of night. I then started seeing them on the walls next to my bed, waiting for me. That’s when I decided to get the mosquito netting. A month ago, I decided to stop using the netting since it was getting colder and I started getting bites again. And then a couple weeks ago, I saw another mosquito sitting next to my bed. I’m back to using the netting again and don’t plan on stopping.
Re: “Culex Molestus”
And the AWARD for “2016’s BEST-EVER SCIENTIFIC NAME” goes to the pointy-head who came up with that one for a ‘skeeter driving people nuts’.😱
Support your local mosquito experts; they DO have a sense of humor.
Ahh, the mosquitos! We live at 90th st between West End/Riv.Dr. We have a lovely garden that I can hardly use between July-Sept because of the agressive mosquitos. Have to keep doors & windows closed. And yes, they don’t totally disapper over winter, but at least it slows down drasticly and we can keep the garden door open again for some fresh air. Hoping for a resolution to the problem!
Impervious to the cold? The critters in the photo look pretty darned pervious.
West 90th between Amsterdam and Columbus has become mosquito hell as well. Starting around summer 2013 or 2014, they made being outside without bug repellent in the area of West Side Community Garden and neighboring residential balconies very unpleasant. Even during the day, not unusual to look down and see 5-6 of them attached to your legs – even on a dry, sunny day. Smaller critters than I remember as a kid. Tiny and fast; hard to swat. Definitely was not like that prior to ’13-’14.
Mosquitoes follow the scent of the carbon dioxide that mammals exhale. I have found sleeping with a small fan in the bedroom that oscillates over me and disperses the gas has been near miraculous. I picked up that trick from a NYT article a few years back.
Are you sure you people aren’t hallucinating??
I have been on the UWS for 35 years and have never seen a mosquito outside of Riverside Park.
Now, don’t get me started about the rats and cockroaches…also i hear bedbugs are now a thing….so there’s that