Climate change makes Iowa hospitable to potentially virulent new resident

Donnelle Eller
Des Moines Register

As climate change pumps more heat into the weather engine, Iowa over the last five years has seen increased frequency of disastrous floods and storms like the March 5 tornadoes that swept across central Iowa, killing seven people.

It's a string of catastrophes that has propelled Iowa into the top 10 among states suffering the greatest financial toll from weather-related disasters since 1980. 

But effects of the changing climate can also take place on a smaller scale — much smaller.

More:Floods, tornadoes, derechos: Iowa trails only hurricane-battered states in natural disaster damage

One of them is one-third-inch long Aedes albopictus, more commonly known as the Asian tiger mosquito.  

A female Aedes albopictus,. or Asian tiger, mosquito bites. Iowa State University researchers say the unwanted import, capable of carrying deadly diseases, has made a home for itself in Iowa as the climate has warmed.

The unintentional import from southeast Asia, likely a stowaway in cargoes from that region, began its invasion of the U.S. South in the 1980s. Harsh winters were thought to prevent the species from surviving in places like Iowa, but an Iowa State University team has discovered the mosquito making a home in Polk, Lee and Des Moines counties. 

More:Climate change is 'first and foremost' a health crisis, new report finds

"The changing climate is allowing for this species to extend into new areas," said Ryan Smith, an ISU entomology professor, whose whose team released a study last month about the new-to-Iowa species.

The mosquito can carry Zika, chikungunya and dengue viruses, all of which can cause serious health problems in humans. "They're nothing that you'd want to get," Smith said.

Zika gained international attention in 2015 and 2016, when mosquitos carrying the disease infected women in central and south America, causing microcephaly, a birth defect in which the babies have brains that are smaller and less developed than those of other infants.

Previously: Zika virus sickens two more Iowa travelers

While the mosquitoes' presence is concerning, Smith said Iowans shouldn't panic. To spread Zika and the other diseases, it would need to need to bite someone infected with them — a rarity in Iowa — and then bite someone else. 

"In order to have transmission, we'd need a bunch of people who were infected," Smith said. "Right now, the risk is small."

The biggest threat, he said, remains mosquitoes carrying the more common West Nile disease, which can be deadly to those who are susceptible.

Most Iowans are likely to find the new mosquito mostly annoying, Smith said. It's aggressive and active during the day, unlike other mosquito species that are active in the evening.