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Billions of mosquito lookalikes plague New Orleans | TribLIVE.com
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Billions of mosquito lookalikes plague New Orleans

Associated Press
Associated Press
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AP
In this time exposure of 1/10 second, a swarm of blind mosquitoes, or aquatic midges, is seen as traffic drives on the Causeway Bridge, with dead ones on the pavement, over Lake Pontchartrain, in Jefferson Parish, outside New Orleans, Tuesday, June 18, 2019. Billions of mosquito lookalikes are showing up in the New Orleans area, blanketing car windshields, littering the ground with bodies and even scaring some folks. They’re aquatic midges, also called “blind mosquitoes,” but these flies don’t bite. However, the Motorist Assistance Patrol on the 24-mile-long Lake Pontchartrain Causeway has been stocking extra water to slosh down windshields.
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AP
Blind mosquitoes, or aquatic midges, cover the front grill of a truck driven by motorist Blake Campo, who stopped along the Causeway Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain after he could no longer see through his windshield, due to swarms of the insects, in Jefferson Parish, La., outside New Orleans Tuesday, June 18, 2019. Billions of mosquito lookalikes are showing up in the New Orleans area, blanketing car windshields, littering the ground with bodies and even scaring some folks. They’re aquatic midges, also called “blind mosquitoes,” but these flies don’t bite. However, the Motorist Assistance Patrol on the 24-mile-long Lake Pontchartrain Causeway has been stocking extra water to slosh down windshields.
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AP
Motorist Blake Campo uses liquid wax, the only liquid he had, to clean his bug covered windshield, which became opaque after driving through swarms of blind mosquitoes, or aquatic midges, on the Causeway Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, in Jefferson Parish, La., outside New Orleans Tuesday, June 18, 2019. Billions of mosquito lookalikes are showing up in the New Orleans area, blanketing car windshields, littering the ground with bodies and even scaring some folks. They’re aquatic midges, also called “blind mosquitoes,” but these flies don’t bite. However, the Motorist Assistance Patrol on the 24-mile-long Lake Pontchartrain Causeway has been stocking extra water to slosh down windshields.
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AP
Blind mosquitoes, or aquatic midges, are seen on a windshield at New Orleans Lakefront Airport in New Orleans, Thursday, June 13, 2019. Billions of mosquito lookalikes are showing up in the New Orleans area, blanketing car windshields, littering the ground with bodies and even scaring some folks. They’re aquatic midges, also called “blind mosquitoes,” but these flies don’t bite. However, the Motorist Assistance Patrol on the 24-mile-long Lake Pontchartrain Causeway has been stocking extra water to slosh down windshields.

NEW ORLEANS — Billions of mosquito lookalikes are showing up in the New Orleans area, blanketing car windshields, littering the ground with little bodies and even scaring some folks.

They’re aquatic midges, often called “blind mosquitoes.” They don’t bite, and they’re good for the environment, but they sure can be a nuisance.

Entomologist Nick Delisi of the St. Tammany Mosquito Abatement District says “They tend to emerge in the billions, with a b.”

Sloshing down bug-spattered windshields has become such a chore that the manager of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway says Motorist Assistance Patrol trucks on the 24-mile-long bridge have had to replenish their water almost daily.

Mosquito control officials say they don’t plan to do anything to control the swarms, because they die in less than a week and their larvae clean up waterways.

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