This summer, as the capital of England became warmer than before, there has been many stories from Londoners experiencing odd insect bites. Even the London Underground has its own species of mosquito with a particular appetite for human blood.
The main insects out for your blood in London are mosquitoes and horseflies (马蝇). And, as that Space song said, the females of these species are more deadly than the males, being the ones that seek out animal blood as extra nutrition for their eggs. Horseflies have a particularly cruel bite using their jaws to bite into our skin like a carving knife until they break a blood vessel (血管). Mosquitoes are more secret attacker, biting us very precisely with their needle-sharp mouth.
In the UK, these insects are usually harmless. The key thing to know about these insects is that they're far more active in warm weather. "Insects have a special and specific relationship with heat," says Vicki Sims from Lady Bug Pest Control. "The rise in temperature sees insects grow faster. Year on year, many species are altering their behaviour and biology to follow the trends of the seasons." So, what does this mean for the state of our skin? Long and warm London summers mean we may see more of the insects we expect, but some new ones we don't. "The only thing separating us from species like mosquitoes that carry public health risks in other parts of the world, is climate, geography and more than a little luck," says Sims.
Concerns about increase of alien species in the UK are growing. Usually arriving with international shipments, traditionally "insect species brought over would die out relatively quickly because of our cold weather," says Natalie Bungay from the British Pest Control Association. "But as the weather warms up there's more chance that they'll survive and become a problem, so effective measures should be taken as soon as possible."
