Photograph Exhibits Pile of 1M Useless Mosquitoes?

Declare:

{A photograph} genuinely exhibits a pile of 1 million mosquitoes “caught in a lure in Sanibel, Florida.”

Ranking:

In August 2024, a picture shared to Reddit (archived) claiming to indicate a pile of 1 million useless mosquitoes acquired greater than 46,000 upvotes and raised some eyebrows amongst commenters. The submit stated the pile was 8 inches tall and about 18 inches extensive.

“Who, precisely, counted them?” one Reddit consumer requested.

The identical picture additionally was posted on Reddit (archived) in April 2024, noting that the pesky bugs have been captured in a lure in Sanibel, Florida. 

A Google keyword search (archived) for the phrase “1 million mosquitoes sanibel florida” returned credible information studies that included the picture, reminiscent of WFLA, WTSP and CBS News. 

One outlet, Atlanta’s WAGA, included a hyperlink to a Fb post shared by the Lee County Mosquito Management District on Feb. 16, 2022, which featured a photo of the massive mosquito mound. In line with the submit, the picture genuinely confirmed the “outcomes of an LCMCD trapping challenge that befell in a single part of 1 neighborhood on Sanibel Island over the summer season of 2021.”

Situated outdoors Fort Myers on the western facet of Florida, Sanibel has been serviced by the LCMCD since 1958. The company reports offering “uninterrupted mosquito management companies to the residents of Lee County for over sixty years.” 

LCMCD did not elaborate in its submit on the small print of the challenge or how its workers have been in a position to seize so most of the pests, nevertheless it famous on its website that the district “makes use of quite a lot of organic, mechanical, and chemical management methods to cut back mosquito populations.”

To find out how authorities calculated the 1 million determine, Snopes reached out to the company. In an e-mail, Aaron Lloyd, LCMCD assistant director, advised Snopes that it is a matter of estimation. He wrote:

When lure counts attain these ranges, particularly when there’s one dominant mosquito species, we’ll use aliquot sampling of the lure seize. Primarily, we weigh the whole lure seize, take a sub-sample of the lure seize, weigh the sub-sample, depend and establish the mosquitoes within the sub-sample, and mathematically calculate what number of mosquitoes are in the whole lure seize.

Some county applications goal mosquito larvae utilizing supplies known as larvicides, whereas grownup mosquitoes are focused utilizing adulticides. LCMCD added that:

All supplies used to regulate mosquitoes have been completely examined as a part of the U.S. Environmental Safety Company registration course of and are used based on the product label instructions. Larvicides and adulticides are utilized by floor or air utilizing extremely subtle software know-how together with satellite tv for pc navigation and international positioning for precision software focusing on. Sterile Insect Method (SIT) can also be used to cut back the variety of Aedes aegypti, a mosquito vector of a number of ailments.

As a result of some mosquitoes can spread viruses reminiscent of Zika, West Nile and dengue, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention reports that mosquito-control efforts are led by native authorities departments and management professionals who observe numbers and kinds of mosquitoes in a given space. 

Snopes has debunked different claims associated to mosquitoes, together with whether or not the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis provided funding to genetically modify — and launch — mosquitoes in varied places, together with Florida. We have additionally fact-checked whether or not mosquitoes are attracted to certain blood types and whether or not it is true that Disney World “never” sees mosquitoes inside its gates.  

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