[texbirds] Re: West Nile strikes deep, crows extinct, jays going
- From: Linda Price <lprice@xxxxxxx>
- To: josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:49:06 -0500
Gregg County is in an area hard hit by West Nile Virus. There is a small area
in north Longview,Gregg County, where I bird regularly. There are numerous
crows at this location and they have not disappeared. Neither have I noticed a
decrease, although I haven't been monitoring it. No TV at home, I didn't know
about the virus outbreak until I tried to report a dead crow last week.
One thing that puzzles me is that mosquitoes have been short supply this year
in areas that I normally bird. I've noticed all through the summer that
mosquito bites were rare to non-existent. I concluded that last year's drought
and heat had knocked down the mosquito population. How could West Nile Virus be
up when mosquito populations are down?
Linda Gail Price
Longview, TX
On Aug 23, 2012, at 8:33 PM, Joseph Kennedy wrote:
>
> >>>>>>>
> There is little study of how birds get infected. The normal culex mosquite
> lives in storm sewers etc and comes out at dusk and bites your ankles. The
> jays etc roost high in trees where the bugs do not as they are not height
> people and the wind up there discourages them. No studies have been done on
> any of the tree top and arbo-specialist mosquito species as they local people
> only do culex and possibly tiger mosquitoes. It has been posited that some
> some of the rare treetop mosquitoes are super-infectors and spread the virus
> among birds which then are bitten and infect the lower down mosquitoes. No
> testing is even done on those species if captured in a trap.
>
>
> Lots of room for people to study things though.
>
> --
> Joseph C. Kennedy
> on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
> Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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