After heavy flooding, clouds of "monstrous" mosquitos are swarming parts of Australia in "plague proportions," according to abc.net.au. It's so bad, the air around farms in New South Wales is humming a nightmarish tune while mosquitos may have killed some dogs in the area. And one farmer complained of mosquitos biting him through his hat.
"I was wearing a cap, it literally bit me through the cap, through my hair and I could feel it in my skull — they are monstrous," said Jeff Fragar, whose 26-year-old daughter shot video of a mosquito cloud on her porch (below).
"They die up against the window, on the floor and strip the wood coating off the verandah," Nicole Fragar said, explaining that she has to pressure wash her porch every day.
For two months, Fragar and his daughter have been isolated at their farm by floodwaters as the relentless mosquitos do damage to property and livestock.
From abc.net.au:
The family is most concerned about the impact of the insects on their livestock.
"The hard part is the animals — neighbours are telling us they are all worried about the animals attacking their cattle," Mr Fragar said.
"Cows are renowned for hiding their calves when they are born, stashing them away, and if you don't get … some sort of spray or something on them, by the following day they will be that lethargic because [the mosquitoes] will have sucked them dry. …
We were talking to a vet the other day and they shared concerns some farm dogs in the region had been killed by the mosquitoes." …
Mosquito expert Cameron Webb from the University of Sydney said the incredible number of flying insects in the video reflected what was happening in many flood-impacted regions.
"It certainly feels plague-like if I was living in a house with that many mosquitoes around it," he said.
So far there hasn't been any viruses detected in the destructive invaders.
Front page thumbnail image: tsyklon / shutterstock.com
