Stop the mosquito breeding before the chikungunya gets you

Well, at least molten lava isn’t erupting from the ground here, spewing toxic gas and burning down homes, like in Hawaii.

So, probably not as many people as usual are wishing they were there instead.

Here it’s just another day paradise: We have balmy weather, with magnolia, gardenia and honeysuckle blooms perfuming the air, and the trees still are spring green.

So far.

But time is running out. You can feel it, on the threshold between spring and summer in the South. You can see the time pass in what blooms, from wisteria and hyacinth to dogwood, and you can see it the leaves’ deepening green.

You can feel it in the air, too: Come next weekend, temperatures will climb back toward the 90s.

Then you’ll feel the sweat, and soon you’ll also feel the sting: The mosquitoes will be swarming, tracking you by the carbon dioxide you exhale, hunting you down, and sucking your blood.

The spread of insect-borne diseases is an eruption of sorts, according to alarming news stories based on reports of increasing infections from mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas.

Also the United States is gaining new diseases with strange names that sound like pagan gods from foreign lands, like dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya.

To fight off strange diseases, you have to battle the vector.

“A person who gets bitten by a vector and gets sick has a vector-borne disease, like dengue, Zika, Lyme, or plague,” says the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Between 2004 and 2016, more than 640,000 cases of these diseases were reported, and nine new germs spread by bites from infected mosquitoes and ticks were discovered or introduced in the U.S.”

Vector-borne cases tripled from 2004 to 2016.

We now have West Nile virus, for which we’ve no vaccines or medications, but most people never know they have it. About one in five people have a fever or other symptoms, and around one in 150 have a severe or lethal infection.

The Zika virus has made it to the southern United States, particularly Florida’s Miami-Dade County area, but no infections have been reported in the country so far this year.

Chikungunya is here, though you don’t hear much about it unless someone just enjoys saying “chikungunya.” It sounds like a mythical monster, like “chupacabra.” Like you kids better watch out, or the chikungunya’s going to get you.

The chikungunya virus causes fever and joint pain, and possibly headache, muscle aches, joint swelling and rash. People can find out more about these diseases at www.cdc.gov/vector.

The thing to remember right now, as spring shifts toward summer in the Deep South – and it’s still breezy in the mornings before that cool air burns off, and you get a sense of the sauna to come – is that this is a good time to clean up around the yard, and get rid of any standing water the mosquitoes will breed in.

If you leave water out for pets or wildlife, you can buy some mosquito “dunks” to put in it. You can get six of the little disks online for $9, if you don’t want to drive to a store. They’ll kill the mosquito larvae without hurting animals drinking the water.

The CDC always tells people to wear insect repellent, once the bugs are out. It also suggests people wear long-sleeve shirts and long pants – in the summer, in the South, when the temperature’s nearing 100 degrees, and the humidity’s thick as steam.

I don’t believe I’ll do that. I have worked summer jobs in which I had to cover up, and it was not pleasant.

But you can, if you want. Just look on the bright side. When you’re out there all buttoned up and soaked in sweat and the mosquitoes are still buzzing in your face, you can think:

“Well, at least I’m not in Hawaii.”

This story was originally published May 6, 2018 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Stop the mosquito breeding before the chikungunya gets you."