Island faces plague of mosquitoes
Monster mosquitoes have descended on a coastal community leaving hundreds of people with painful bites.
Hayling Island has always had a problem with mosquitoes but this year the pests have come out in force, with millions of them swarming over the area.
Pharmacists have reported a rise in trade as residents scramble to buy bite cream to ease their itches.
The rise in the number of mosquitoes is being blamed on the combination of warm weather and a downpour of rain recently, which has provided perfect conditions for the insects to breed in stagnant water.
Pharmacist Emily Richards, from Lloyds Pharmacy in Elm Grove, has been dishing out antihistamines as people flood through the door with nasty bites.
Favourite breeding grounds for the troublesome insects include cut-off areas of water inside the sea wall that surrounds the east and west of the island and ditches containing stagnant water, especially on Sinah Common, West Hayling.
Environmental bosses are going out every two weeks to target problem breeding areas using bacteria that kill just the mosquitoes.
Stephen Dear, environmental health manager at Havant Borough Council, called for the public to help by getting rid of any stagnant water in their gardens.
jenny.haworth@thenews.co.uk
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Weather for Portsmouth
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
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