Video: Larvae on the Loose
People who live in a Sylvania Ohio neighborhood woke up to a surprise over the weekend when they noticed something strange laying on the pavement… At first glance, they looked…
GUANGZHOU, CHINA – JUNE 22: Mosquito larvae is seen as male and female are separated in the Mass Production Facility in the lab at the Sun Yat-Sen University-Michigan University Joint Center of Vector Control for Tropical Disease on June 22, 2016 in Guangzhou, China. Considered the world’s largest mosquito factory, the laboratory raises millions of male mosquitos for research that could prove key to the race to prevent the spread of Zika virus. The lab’s mosquitos are infected with a strain of Wolbachia pipientis, a common bacterium shown to inhibit Zika and related viruses including dengue fever. Researchers release the infected mosquitos at nearby Shazai island to mate with wild females who then inherit the Wolbachia bacterium which prevents the proper fertilization of her eggs. The results so far are hopeful: After a year of research and field trials on the island, the lab claims there is 99% suppression of the population of Aedes albopictus or Asia tiger mosquito, the type known to carry Zika virus. Researchers believe if their method proves successful, it could be applied on a wider scale to eradicate virus-carrying mosquitos in Zika-affected areas around the world. The project is an international non-profit collaboration lead by Professor Xi Zhiyong, director of the Sun Yat-Sen University-Michigan University Joint Center of Vector Control for Tropical Disease with support from various levels of China’s government and other organizations. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
People who live in a Sylvania Ohio neighborhood woke up to a surprise over the weekend when they noticed something strange laying on the pavement...
At first glance, they looked like sticks. But a closer look shows something much more complex. So we took the video to an expert.
Dr. Daniel Pavuk is an Ecology and Conservation Faculty Mentor at Bowling Green State University. Analyzing our video, he suggests, "Some sort of fly larvae. Looks like maggots or something."
He concludes the strange formations are made up of thousands of fungus gnat larvae. But what surprises Dr. Pavuk is the vast amount of them.
"I've never seen anything quite like that before," he says.
Dr. Pavuk says it's likely that the rainy spring produced more dead or decaying plant material in yards, allowing the population to explode. And after the man on Victoria Ct. recently treated his lawn for grubs, the race was on for them to get away.
