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Germany faces insect infestation

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Germany faces insect infestation
Photo: DPA

Waiting for Germany’s soggy summer weather to become warm and dry? Not so fast. The recent rain has created the perfect breeding conditions for nasty insects like wasps, mosquitoes and gnats.

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Mosquito larvae has been thriving in copious amounts of standing water, according to experts, who says they’ll start swarming as soon as the sun comes out for an extended period.

Furthermore, wasps will be more aggressive because of the wet period, during which they had difficulty finding other insects to eat.

“They now have a lot to make up,” said Burkhard Schricker, an insect expert at the Free University of Berlin.

There are also more wasps than normal this year because there are an unusually low number of hornets – wasps’ mortal enemies.

Municipal authorities throughout Germany say they are working on plans to fight back this year against insect swarms, though this may prove a struggle.

KABS, an association of German cities and states dedicated to fighting insect infestations, says it has already deployed all of its resources, including a helicopter, to monitor the situation.

Workers are also headed to breeding sites on foot to figure out how to fight against breeding insects. They could try to exterminate excessive numbers of mosquitoes using a biological agent that is harmless to other plants and animals.

DPA/The Local/mdm

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