The potentially deadly insects, which are known to carry diseases, were found in a touristy Capital where hundreds of merchant ships and cruise liners dock monthly
Brits travelling to the Canary Islands this summer are being warned of a deadly disease-carrying mosquito.
An urgent plea for better sea controls was issued to the Spanish government after several tiger mosquitos were found inside two containers in the port of Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife.
The potentially deadly insects had been lurking around an area with a large tourist footfall, where hundreds of merchant ships and cruise liners dock every month. Island leaders have said the State must urgently increase controls on ships arriving from areas where the tiger mosquito is widely established, that is, the entire Levantine and Andalusian coast.
Known officially as Aedes albopictus, the insects are smaller than regular mosquitoes and darker in colour, with silver bands on the body and white-striped legs. They also do not emit the buzzing sound of the common mosquito.
The plea for tighter controls comes just a week after Tenerife declared itself free of the Aedes albopictus, which is capable of spreading the deadly Dengue fever and can also carry the Zika virus.
The Canarian Ministry of Health yesterday re-activated the protocol provided for in the Entomological Surveillance System after the bug, in different stages of growth, was detected in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife - in two containers from Castellón.
On Thursday, the management of the Port Inspection Centre (CIP) told the University Institute of Tropical Diseases, and Public Health of the Canary Islands of the University of La Laguna that, in an inspection, the mosquitoes were found flying in two containers with large olive trees, as well as the presence of puddles of water inside the cavities of the trunks.
Staff sent to the site confirmed the presence in these cavities of a high density of immature stages of mosquitoes (larvae and pupae), which were identified in a lab as Aedes albopictus. The two containers and their contents were fumigated as a preventive measure.
The Surveillance and Public Health System team expanded the ratio of trap placement at different risk points, such as places where they have been detected and nearby areas.
Port authorities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas, as well as the Santa Cruz City Council, were informed, in order to implement the planned actions. Sampling in the area was also intensified, reviewing possible breeding sites that crop up.
The bug has triggered surveillance work to take place in the area in recent months. In the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, since January 2023, Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes have been found periodically in February, March and May 2023 (cruise ships) and a specimen of Aedes albopictus last November was also associated with ship traffic.
During the months of November 2023 and January 2024, they were also detected in the port of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria. In June, health officials said they had battled against the mosquito outbreak in north Tenerife with just a single find in a house in Santa Cruz.
This insect was thought to have come in with an orchid imported from Holland.