Las Vegas' growing mosquito problem is 'a ticking time bomb'

NBC News ^ | August 17, 2025 8:15 AM CDT | Denise Chow

[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...

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

[HerrBlucher]

Well I am low carb now but that’s only recently, i do drink more alcohol, bourbon, then I did when I was younger. But it is probably just due to the changes That people go through when they get older. Allergies they had when they were young they no longer have and vice versa.

I have to admit it’s fun when those around me are complaining about the mosquitoes and I am saying, what mosquitoes?

[pops88]

The mosquitoes were so bad here this Summer that I had to order netting for my bed and practically fumigate as when I lived in Africa. I figured it was from the amount of untended pools we have here from uninhabited homes. My gardener agreed with me. I know several years ago at an HOA meeting they were trying to do something about the green pools of absent homeowners. Being in real estate, with the economy, I suspect the problem has gotten much worse, especially when the banks start looking for realtors to handle their foreclosures. I made a mosquito dunk and it seems to have helped significantly.

[minnesota_bound]

Any still water will let mosquitoes breed.

[minnesota_bound]

I have seen maybe 5 mosquitoes in the San Fernando valley after living here since 1988. I am from Minnesota and there are clouds of mosquitoes and people just swat them and spray them and plant plants that mosquitoes hate.
List of 12 plants:
https://www.gardendesign.com/plants/mosquito-repellent.html

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***it was thought mosquitoes couldn’t survive in desert climates,***
I remember 1955 Utah where mosquitos were so big they could almost suck all the blood out of you! And the welts they left were huge and super itchy. I still remember kids bleeding where they had scratched themselves constantly.
We used to run behind the DDT spray truck for relief in the hot desert sun.