What Houston is doing to fight mosquitoes

We know You feel it, too. The spontaneous bites, the itchy bumps, the buzzing of mosquitoes circling your head like tiny, unwanted helicopters—it’s enough to keep anyone indoors. Houston’s mosquito population is booming, and thanks to the weird weather and all that rain during and after Hurricane Beryl, these pesky biters are out in force this summer.

Dr. Maximea “Max” Vigilant, director of the Harris County Department of Public Health’s Mosquito and Vector Control Division, has a front-row seat to this mosquito madness and blames the outbreak on a perfect storm of climate factors.

“After heavy rains, floods and hurricanes, we see an increase in floodwater mosquitoes in Harris County,” Vigilant said. “Floodwater mosquitoes love to lay their eggs in dirt, mud, soft, marshy areas (and) grassy areas during the winter; hopefully, they can emerge in the summer. However, with the climate change that we’ve seen, floodwater mosquitoes have emerged earlier. So it’s showing up as much more than that.”

Warmer temperatures earlier this year, combined with humidity in late spring and early summer, have accelerated the insect’s life cycle, leading to an earlier and more intense mosquito season. Vigilant and his team are on the ground every day to control the bloodsuckers’ population. Their work involves a combination of monitoring, testing, treatment and public outreach.

“Every day we collect mosquito species, identify them, rank them by public health importance, and test them for mosquito-borne viruses,” Vigilant says. “We conduct surveillance with our inspectors and treat larval-infested bodies of water to reduce mosquito outbreaks.”

The team also conducts home inspections for residents who report mosquito infestations, providing essential services to identify and eliminate breeding sites. But their most crucial weapon in the fight against these flying monsters is public education. “We teach people how they can best help us help them,” Vigilant says.

One of the main messages Vigilant is pushing is the importance of eliminating standing water around homes and yards. Even a small amount of water can be a breeding ground for hundreds of mosquitoes. It recommends that residents frequently empty birdbaths and turn over containers that collect rainwater. And don’t forget to use an EPA-approved insect repellent to spray your yard, deck, outdoor furniture, and of course, your skin.

Mosquitoes are certainly a nuisance, but the diseases they can carry are even more concerning. This year, Harris County is seeing a resurgence of one of them.

“West Nile virus is endemic in Harris County, and we get it every year,” Vigilant said. But the agency has a new testing platform that provides a clearer and faster picture of the virus’s prevalence. “We found a large number of mosquito clusters that tested positive for West Nile virus.”

A mosquito pool is a collection of up to 50 mosquitoes collected in a single vial and tested for the presence of viruses. By analyzing these mosquito pools, Vigilant and his team can more effectively track the spread of West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases. So far, more than 500 vials have tested positive for West Nile virus.

This new testing platform, a real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR), has transformed their ability to monitor mosquito populations. It represents a significant advancement over its predecessor, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). “qPCR is five times more sensitive than ELISA. We can get results in six to eight hours,” Vigilant explains. “We can test more samples at once and it gives us the ability to test samples with a higher degree of sensitivity.”

While the fight against itchy bites and potential viruses rages on, there’s another side to the mosquito story. As Dr. Vigilant points out, these buzzing nuisances play a role in the local ecosystem.

“Mosquitoes provide food and nutrients to other creatures. The other part of their structure is to bother humans because they need a mammalian blood meal to be able to continue generation,” Vigilant explains.

This is a complex web of life, and total eradication of mosquitoes – as difficult as we might wish – would not be desirable. This does not mean that we should tolerate their presence unchecked. Rather, it is about finding a balance that allows us to coexist without compromising human health. This is where ongoing research plays a vital role.

But in the meantime, the city’s mosquito expert is encouraging residents to take a cue from him by being…vigilant: protect yourself, drain standing water, and report any infestations. This is a Houston where these monsters (OK, we’re just angry) are managed and outdoor activities can be enjoyed without the constant fear of being eaten alive.