About an hour’s drive from Vienna is the Penny Markt in Krems an der Donau, which prides itself on two things: low, very low prices and the provenance of its meat and fresh produce. But one fine day in August last year, shoppers rummaging around for local produce discovered a much more exotic, if less welcome, surprise among the crates of bananas.
The culprit turned out to be the stowaway Brazilian wandering spider, an 11cm-long black and red arachnid whose bite causes convulsions, hypothermia, death and – if you’re of the masculine persuasion – a particularly painful case of uncontrollable erection. You can imagine the shock.
The shop is closed for precautionary disinfection, and the spider ran away, never to be heard from again. But this is far from the only aggressive creepy-crawly to appear in European tabloids lately.
France has acquired an unfortunate pre-Olympic reputation for rampant bed bug infestations, with Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire warning people: “No one is safe.” They can be caught anywhere,” and reports of bloodsuckers on the Eurostar caused panic in London.
Tiger mosquitoes, which can carry dengue and Zika, have also been spotted across the country, prompting authorities in Paris to bring in entomological “detectives” to track their breeding sites.
Meanwhile, the Turkish pharmaceutical industry is looking at Europe more broadly as an interesting new export market for antidote for scorpion.
Kemal Karagoz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Is climate change to blame for this apparent arthropod invasion?
The reality is far less apocalyptic than the headlines suggest, says Dr Matt Green, chief entomologist at UK pest control company Rentokil Initial, which operates across the continent.
We are a long way from dengue becoming endemic. Reports of bed bugs in France have increased mainly because people saw the horrifying headlines and started looking under mattresses. And if we tend to see more invasive species, it’s largely not because of rising temperatures.
“I am often asked how climate change affects our business. Well, considering that humans have already transported all the major pests to virtually every country and certainly every major center of human activity, it’s not as much as you think,” says Green. Luck.
Is climate change to blame for this apparent arthropod invasion?
The good news is that those who are afraid of encountering lost Brazilian wandering spiders can relax.
Most species need more than a simple increase in temperature to establish themselves in new and completely different ecosystems. For example, the Sheerness docks near London had a population 10,000 yellow scorpions over the centuriesas merchant ships brought them from continental Europe, but these harmless creatures did not spread due to unsuitable conditions.
What climate change is doing to pest populations in Europe
This does not mean that climate change is not affecting pest numbers in Europe.
Termites, long a problem in Mediterranean countries, are eating their way into northern Europe as temperatures rise, although the relative absence of wooden structures means they are unlikely to cause widespread economic damage there.
Aedes The mosquitoes – a genus that includes tiger mosquitoes – have a strong foothold in Italy and have made their way into France, meaning countries like Switzerland are unlikely to be spared.
“Europe is already seeing how climate change is creating more favorable conditions for the spread of invasive mosquitoes into previously unaffected areas,” Andrea Ammon, director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. said BBC.
Fortunately, they do not carry malaria. Anopheleswhich is unlikely to spread to Europe due to the lack of large bodies of standing water, which, unlike Aedes– he needs to reproduce.
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What can’t be said about Asian hornets which, depending on where you live, may soon be coming to a picnic near you. “They move around France quite easily and there have been cases of them wintering in the UK, which means we probably already have them, so deal with it,” says Green.
Then there are bed bugs. Even before the recent surge, infections were costing the French economy 230 million euros ($246 million) a year, according to the health agency. Anses. The calls could cost hotels thousands of dollars in treatment costs and lost revenue, and could cause hysteria and panic during the Paris Olympics.
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These six-legged vampires may have been here all along, but they prefer warmer weather.
“When the temperature inside your home is between 25 to 26 degrees Celsius (77 to 78.8 Fahrenheit), bed bug eggs hatch in just five days. Under normal conditions, when the temperature is about 20 degrees Celsius, this takes 10 days,” said entomologist and co-founder of the National Institute for the Study and Control of Bedbugs Jean-Michel Bérenger. Wired at the height of the panic last year
How Europe’s pests are changing beyond climate change
Whether rising temperatures have helped or not, the pests we’re likely to see more often are the ones best adapted to humans and our behavior, and it’s our behavior that helps them spread.
In rural areas this most often occurs through monoculture agriculture, although sometimes all that is needed is a tendency to import alien plants.
The oak procession moth is a species endemic to southern Europe that damages forests and produces hairs that can irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tract.entrenched in the UK in the 2000s, when oak was brought from Europe. Ironically, this happened very close to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where the authorities keep an eye on such things.
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However, you will most likely notice urban pests.
Rats, mice, cockroaches and the like share characteristics that make them ideal for living in close contact with humans, whether we like it or not. They are small, able to crawl in tight spaces, are usually dark and nocturnal, making them difficult to spot. It is important to note that they are also omnivores.
“They’re very flexible, so they don’t care about one or two degrees [change in temperature]. They already live in air-conditioned buildings,” says Rentokil’s Green. “Some moths in warehouses now hardly fly. They don’t have to. They simply lived in a world full of food and were moved around by people. It’s a hell of a life.”
Sometimes well-intentioned or necessary changes in human behavior contribute to the spread of urban pests.
Beyond the media frenzy, the bed bug population did At the beginning of the 21st century, there has been a rapid increase throughout the world. IN Australiathe growth ranged from 500% to 4500%; In New York City, the number of bed bug complaints received by the council jumped from 537 in 2004 to 10,985 in 2009, although since I fell.
Entomologists attribute Revival of the end of an era DDT, a notorious insecticide, sharply reduced global insect pest numbers in the mid- to late 20th century before serious environmental and health concerns stopped its use and species began to develop resistance. In essence, we are returning to historical norms during a period of unusually low insect activity.
Don’t expect this to change. Although the pest control industry has adopted increasingly sophisticated monitoring strategies and “physical” measures such as steam cleaning rooms for bed bugs, abandoning chemical control means we are losing what has been a powerful weapon against infestations.
Something similar could happen with rats, at least in Europe, where regulators are taking action. increasingly dull appearance on the use of anticoagulants and rodenticides.
There may be good reasons for this, but it makes pest control professionals nervous. As one put it, “There is a whole generation of pest control specialists trained to put rat poison in bait boxes. If you take it off the market, what do you have left? Quote Alienswhat should we use, harsh language?”
Future
Humanity has caused the extinction of many species, mostly unintentionally, and continues to do so. However, species that at least some of us would like to see fewer of have proven stubbornly resilient. Almost by definition, pests thrive when we do this.
So what should we expect? In Europe, climate change and human activity are unlikely to make deadly spiders a permanent fixture in grocery stores or bring mosquito-borne diseases to tropical levels.
But they will change the populations of the fauna with which we share our environment. Get used to Aedes and Asian hornets; Be vigilant for rats and bed bugs.
However, perhaps what will change most is our understanding of what pest control means. With the “ask questions first, ask later” approach firmly in the history books, killing pests when they first appear may end up being remembered as a 20th-century idea.