Add this to the list of things that make sewage stink: Mosquitoes thrive on it.
A new study, presented at the meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Albuquerque, found far more mosquitoes in sewage-contaminated streams than in clean ones. Sewage-bred mosquitoes were also bigger and faster than those in purer waters.
Mosquitoes carry West Nile virus and other dangerous diseases. The new study suggests that sewage is a public health hazard in more ways than one.
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"What it means for people is that we need to push to have cleaner streams in cities," said lead author Luis Fernando Chaves, an ecologist at Emory University in Atlanta. "One way to reduce these artificial problems is to ensure the water quality of these streams by not dumping sewage in them."
