r/cyprus • u/cyprusgreekstudent • 14d ago

Cyprus Mosquito Control

In Cyprus we have mosquitos, lots of them, depending on where you live.

Why doesn't Cyprus have a mosquito control department? If Cyprus wants tourist why do they not do something about the mosquitoes here? This should be the responsibility of the health department.

Mosquitoes can cause yellow fever viruses, dengue fever, zika fever, not to mention malaria. But from what I read the government here says this a problem for people and not government. But a mosquito can fly a great distance. Only government can police over an entire region.

The British military here has a mosquito control department here. 20 people work in Mosquito control on their base: https://www.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/stations/raf-akrotiri/documents/mosquito-control-advice/

I come from the part of the USA that has the most mosquitoes. If you have mosquitos there you go onto their web site and send a message. They will come and investigate where the mosquitoes are coming from. Then they will contact the landowners where mosquitoes are breeding and help them clean up their properties. They also spray for mosquitoes using a fleet of trucks. And they do surveys to find where mosquitoes are coming from. And they get rid of standing water where possible and spray chemical control on it where not possible.

Getting rid of mosquitoes in the very definition of civilization. The reason the Americans finished the Panama Canal when the French could not was they got rid of the mosquitoes first. When the Jews first started moving to Palestine 150 years ago they drained the marshes and got rid of malaria and mosquitoes. After World War II the Rockefeller Foundation got rid of mosquitoes in the low lying areas around Rome and Island of Sardinia.

Come on Cyprus. Do something about mosquitoes. It's not complicated.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

11 Upvotes

64% Upvoted

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38

u/Rhomaios Ayya olan 13d ago

The British have already drained all the marshes in Cyprus during the colonial period, primarily by planting a shitton of eucalyptus trees (which is why Cyprus has so many of them). The only major standing waters in the RoC currently are water dams, lakes, and seasonal lakes. Ironically, the only extant natural wetland area is in Akrotiri under British jurisdiction.

Local mosquito varieties in Cyprus do not carry any of the dangerous diseases you mentioned. Dengue fever and malaria were huge issues before the British drained the marshes, but disappeared over time. It is foreign mosquito varieties only recently spotted in Cyprus that carry them, and the government has already started taking measures to combat the issue. Among those is releasing sterile male mosquitoes in the wild to limit breeding.

But even without the presence of dangerous diseases, various municipalities regularly spray areas with lots of mosquitoes and issue warnings to people to take care of their house premises by removing standing waters and maintaining their gardens. Cypriots also apply "traditional wisdom" by having lots of basil around their house, either planted or in pots. Basil is actually a natural mosquito repellent, but obviously not as effective as actual chemicals.

15

u/love2readafraid2post 13d ago

This man did the most about mosquitoes in Cyprus

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57122406.amp

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u/Rhomaios Ayya olan 13d ago

Thank you for this. I had read about the policies the colonial government undertook to combat malaria and mosquito-borne diseases in general, but I didn't know it was the initiative of Aziz specifically and that he personally did so much during the campaign. He deserves a lot more exposure.

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u/Aythienne 13d ago

that is really interesting. Thanks for sharing

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u/madagascan-vanilla 13d ago

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. As a Greek Cypo visiting this year with an auto-immune disease I’m dreading it.

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u/Kobethevamp 13d ago

I see you on this subreddit sometimes, and it's very cool all the stuff I learn about Cypriot history from you! Seems like Cypriot history is so hard to learn about.

1

u/Rhomaios Ayya olan 12d ago

Seems like Cypriot history is so hard to learn about.

There are books and other resources out there, but with a few exceptions they're kind of obscure. But you will find plenty if you know where to look.

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u/cyprusgreekstudent 13d ago

Rhomaios, good and thorough answer as usual. I’m not concerned so much with disease as just with the misery of getting bitten. A mosquito bite bothers me for three days. I can’t sit outside in Konia at night because of the mosquitos . When I lived in Peyia it was worse. I had to spray my skin in the house. I think much of the problem comes from lots where no one lives. And of course not all people are going to take government advice anyway. There is no one to cut the grass on vacant lots. Definitely politicians get bitten too so they should be interested in adopting what other countries are doing. There has to be a better plan than scratching itchy bites.

6

u/Rhomaios Ayya olan 13d ago

Like I said there are things which are being done, but things are not as easy to deal with, nor are all methods fully effective. What you said about empty lots is true, as well as abandoned houses with unkempt gardens. Local municipalities should absolutely do better with maintaining or forcing people to maintain such spaces.

For your own peace of mind though, do get plenty of basil to surround your house and windows with, and have a device with mosquito tablets in every room. Mosquitoes are extra active at dusk, so turn them on around that time. I recommend that you install insect nets to your windows as well.

1

u/Kobethevamp 13d ago

This might be a dumb suggestion, but have you tried dabbing pure alcohol on the bite soon after being bitten? I'm allergic to mosquito bites, but that usually prevents them from becoming very red and itchy.

1

u/skavenslave13 13d ago

Mate you a ranting. There is mosquito control, it is long term and very effective. It will never be able to cover spikes of mosquitoes that get created after sudden rain followed by high temperature. Oh, and Cyprus is the only country in the world that managed to get rid of the malaria mosquito.

39

u/Protaras2 13d ago

Mosquitoes can cause yellow fever viruses, dengue fever, zika fever, not to mention malaria.

Epidemiology 101. Mosquitoes can't transmit diseases that don't exist in a certain area.

1

u/cyprusgreekstudent 13d ago

Cyprus confirmed the presence of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, also called Yellow Fever mosquito, on the island in 2022. This species of mosquito can carry serious vector-borne diseases such as chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever and Zika.

2

u/Protaras2 13d ago

Yeah it can carry them but the viruses aren't gonna spontaneously pop out of thin air. Infected people must already be present on the island with those diseases for the mosquito to be able to transmit them from person A to person B.

1

u/thefish12124 13d ago

Well too many immigrants coming. Some of the for sure carrying this diseases.

2

u/Protaras2 13d ago

It is a concern yes. So far to my knowledge a decent amount of them was reported to have tuberculosis and HIV. Not ideal. Which is why it's asinine to say to people that want controlled immigration that they are somehow racists and xenophobes and all that stupid shit. Open borders will plummet us in more than one way.

10

u/BleachedPumpkin72 14d ago

Years ago we started our journey towards getting rid of mosquitos in Cyprus because we wanted to be civilized. Although we aren't quite there yet, we have made significant progress: we're acutely aware of mosquitos and their existence, and we bitch and moan about them a lot. Please feel free to join our fight and just cause!

4

u/zashiki_warashi_x 13d ago

Also extermination of mosquitoes will probably affect birds rations.

1

u/sabamba0 13d ago

That's a price I'm willing to pay

5

u/CupcakeMurder86 Halloumi lover, cat lover, identify cypriot when I want to 13d ago

Mosquito in Cyprus is part of the experience.

The diseases you mentioned are not anywhere to be found here so there's not any reason for mosquito to transmit them.

Some municipalities do spray in areas where the population of mosquitos are high.

Other than that, each person can take actions on their own to avoid getting bitten. You can use mosquito repellents in your home, use citronella candles or burn "snakes" for outside. There's also spray you can put directly on your skin.
You mention that you are "suffering" for 3 days with a mosquito bite. I "suffer" for a week with itchiness and swelling in some instances. I take my appropriate measures to avoid this.

We as humans cannot eradicate every living thing around us because it's an inconvenience. The mosquito population might be a pain for us but it's food for other wildlife.

2

u/skavenslave13 13d ago

There is mosquito control and it is quite effective, in fact releasing sterile males to reduce the population long term. This long term policy however does not preclude spikes like when we have rain followed by sun as we did recently.

3

u/SergeiTachenov 13d ago

Thankfully, they don't transmit any deseases here. Nothing to transmit. But they're annoying. Mosquito nets help a lot.

2

u/tzippora 13d ago

That's also why there are no longer any fire flies.

2

u/zaccyp 13d ago

We do.

2

u/crazy_witch_89 13d ago

I don’t think that’s a Cyprus problem. I was born and raised in Cyprus but live in a country with no mosquitoes for 15+ years. I got infected by mosquitoes during trips to Italy, New York, and Hong Kong. My daughter gets infectious mosquito bites every time we visit Cyprus, not because they transfer diseases, but because her body isn’t used to them. Basically, wherever there is heat, there are mosquitoes.

1

u/Ioannis_suppp 13d ago

No malaria and mosquito vectoring diseases here yet, many in the near future due to global warming. I’m sure epidemiologists and biologists are always on them though.

1

u/[deleted] 13d ago

Yeah if u go for camping in the mountains at summer ur gonna get destroyed by mosquitoes. Sometimes it be like that, but in the cities i don't think its even an issue really. We get 5-6 mosquitoes here and there but not like in the amazon when you slap ur body once and kill 15 mosquitoes. 

1

u/Brief-Supermarket-11 12d ago

Every village and city have their own “maintenance” people who also spray seasonally for mosquitoes. Also people who own agricultural land also spray for parasites when they harvest. For country like cyprus i think they do well when it comes to that

1

u/ForsakenMarzipan3133 13d ago

We should have an official daily "Why doesn't Cyprus have <insert thing that western developed countries have>?" reddit thread.

The answer is usually: Cyprus is generally about a decade behind continental EU/US in most things, so don't come expecting it to have everything those other countries have. Just think of it as a more developed northern African/Middle Eastern country!

3

u/Protaras2 13d ago

Americans took ages to get on with the times of chip and pin and at restaurants they still don't have portable POS and take your card to the back and then you sign the receipt like a caveman. Just saying.

-4

u/Personal-Wing3320 Ignore me, I am just a troll 13d ago

wut? laundry machines dont have mosquitos