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Las Vegas' growing mosquito problem is 'a ticking time bomb'
NBC News ^ | August 17, 2025 8:15 AM CDT | Denise Chow

Posted on 08/18/2025 5:49:47 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

The insects are not only a nuisance, but they also pose a major threat of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and West Nile virus.

LAS VEGAS — If at one time it was thought mosquitoes couldn’t survive in desert climates, this city is a case study in how wrong that is.

Mosquitoes typically prefer more tropical, humid conditions, but these biting machines have exploded in number throughout the Las Vegas Valley in recent years because of a host of changes.

A mix of urban development, climate change, insecticide resistance and genetic adaptations are creating a more hospitable environment for the insects in southern Nevada.

Las Vegas is hardly alone in its battle against the pesky insects. Warmer temperatures and shifting weather patterns are expanding the geographic range in which mosquitoes live and breed. In many ways, what’s happening here is playing out across the desert Southwest and beyond.

The mosquitoes have brought with them not only the nuisance of bug bites, but also the major threat of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and West Nile virus to Las Vegas and the rest of Clark County.

It's also caught people off guard.

“People aren’t wrong that mosquitoes shouldn’t really thrive in desert conditions, but it’s clear that the particular set of species that we do have in Clark County has adapted to the local ecology,” said Louisa Messenger, an assistant professor in the department of environmental and global health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

'A ticking time bomb'

The species that have taken hold in Clark County include Culex mosquitoes, which can carry West Nile virus, and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the primary spreaders of dengue. What’s more, Messenger and her colleagues at UNLV have found that mosquitoes...

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: lasvegas; mosquitoes; nevada

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1 posted on 08/18/2025 5:49:47 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.


2 posted on 08/18/2025 5:51:59 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Green swimming pools and water features.


3 posted on 08/18/2025 5:53:49 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
A mix of urban development, climate change, insecticide resistance and genetic adaptations are creating a more hospitable environment for the insects...

They just gotta get it in there.

4 posted on 08/18/2025 5:58:00 PM PDT by pfflier
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To: Mariner

Those are the only “climate change” situations I can think of. Haven’t heard anything about more rain than normal in Nevada.


5 posted on 08/18/2025 6:02:00 PM PDT by skr (1 Peter 1:15 - But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation)
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To: Mariner

Those things can develope in wet grass. Doesn’t take long.


6 posted on 08/18/2025 6:05:42 PM PDT by waterhill (Nobody cares, work harder!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Kill Them, Kill Them All.


7 posted on 08/18/2025 6:05:49 PM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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Pretty sure Bill Gates is on top of it...He’s like superman in a pink sweater....


8 posted on 08/18/2025 6:07:30 PM PDT by waterhill (Nobody cares, work harder!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
If at one time it was thought mosquitoes couldn’t survive in desert climates, this city is a case study in how wrong that is.

Baloney. We have tons of mosquitos in the Phoenix area, probably exacerbated by people with swimming pools and decorative ponds.

As an aside, they don't seem to like the way I taste. People around me can be being eaten alive by mosquitos, but they hardly touch me.

9 posted on 08/18/2025 6:07:40 PM PDT by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia!)
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To: pfflier

All a result of state and government regulations outlawing the use of insecticides. Insect growth regulators and growth inhibitors don’t do jack sh#t. Nothing on the market kills insects ie fleas, mosquitoes, chiggers,etc. Animals are dying from fleas and insect carrying parasitic infections. So are people.


10 posted on 08/18/2025 6:07:49 PM PDT by doc maverick
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To: waterhill

“Pretty sure Bill Gates is on top of it...He’s like superman in a pink sweater....”

His parents used to have dinner with Margaret Sanger.


11 posted on 08/18/2025 6:09:24 PM PDT by dljordan (The Rewards of Tolerance are Treachery and Betrayal)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

> A mix of urban development, climate change, insecticide resistance … <

Every bad thing is due to either climate change or MAGA Republicans.

And sometimes it’s both.


12 posted on 08/18/2025 6:10:45 PM PDT by Leaning Right (It's morning in America. Again.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

People come by the thousands from all over the world daily to Las Vegas and return home soon after. What a perfect opportunity for spreading an issue.


13 posted on 08/18/2025 6:14:09 PM PDT by Racketeer
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To: waterhill

Wet grass?... In Las Vegas????


14 posted on 08/18/2025 6:15:19 PM PDT by tophat9000 (Tophat90000)
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To: tophat9000

Industrial chillers on the hotels produce quite a bit of run off. Where does it go?


15 posted on 08/18/2025 6:17:46 PM PDT by waterhill (Nobody cares, work harder!)
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To: ansel12

Send in these guys....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCQ0yUSWey4


16 posted on 08/18/2025 6:18:57 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: waterhill

Cooling towers re-use the same water, losing some to evaporation, and what is released goes through the sewer system.


17 posted on 08/18/2025 6:22:30 PM PDT by Don W (When blacks riot, neighborhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
"Mosquitoes typically prefer more tropical, humid conditions, but these biting machines have exploded in number throughout the Las Vegas Valley in recent years because of a host of changes."

Or maybe there is water from fountains and canals that should be in a desert. They keep build mosquito breeding grounds that never existed in deserts.

18 posted on 08/18/2025 6:24:38 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: fidelis

I’ve been the same way for decades,mosquitoes hate me, they used to eat me alive. I can’t remember the last time I was bitten by mosquito.


19 posted on 08/18/2025 6:31:41 PM PDT by HerrBlucher
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

They left out the Zika virus (cone head babies) brought in from the Olympics in Brazil.


20 posted on 08/18/2025 6:32:46 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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