recent mosquito problems??

[sunsetme]

any problems in the last month in the Caribbean with the buggers??

[chrysalis]

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/watch/chikungunya-saint-martin

[Jim Avery]

any problems in the last month in the Caribbean with the buggers??

 

It depends which island you are on and where you go. Some islands have virtually none while islands with fresh water marshy areas can be pretty bad. As they don't generally breed in salt water, you are usually safe at the beach or just off the beach. Avoid inland trips to rivers/lakes/marshes if possible. Sounds like a crummy thing to catch.

[sunsetme]

any first hand reports?

[chrysalis]

any first hand reports?

 

I was in Cuba about 5 weeks ago, and there were lots of them in the evenings.

 

People have posted in the last day or so that they were a problem at the pier in Turks and Caicos

[pompeii]

Yes, tons of them at dusk in Grand Turk. None during the afternoon, only came out when the sun started to set. Take some repellent along just to be on the safe side. On the plus side, dh got several bites but didn't catch anythng nasty.

[reedprincess]

any first hand reports?

 

Sure. I live in St Lucia and we have mosquitoes. Problem? Not really. It's pretty standard to have mosquitoes in rainforest areas! Actually less of them around the island this year due to the awful drought this past winter, and into summer season. No water, no breeding areas.

If you're asking about mosquito-born illnesses, that's different. See CDC report and info from above.

Enjoy your sailings!

[Dawnaurora]

Haiti in general has not had as many mosquitos as usual this year, so Labadee should not be too bad. The Chikungunya epidemic this summer has become very quiet - we've all had it and now have immunity, so the mosquitos aren't finding many sick people to infect themselves from! The virus is certainly still hanging around, but no one who is in reasonably good health should be cancelling cruises because of it.

 

We had our board meeting in November with several board members over the age of 70, and none of them got sick despite being here for 4 days.

 

Use your repellant!

[Grover_]

Not Mosquitos, but last month we spent a few hours on princess cays and I had about 20 bites on my lower legs from sitting in the beach. Sand fleas maybe?

 

I was surprised because I used insect repellent.

[satxdiver]

Not Mosquitos, but last month we spent a few hours on princess cays and I had about 20 bites on my lower legs from sitting in the beach. Sand fleas maybe?

 

I was surprised because I used insect repellent.

 

Sounds like the sand creatures which the insect repellent is not very good. Some call them no-see-ums because they are very hard to see if at all but you can sure feel the results.

 

Grand Turk has an inland body of water and is a very small island (6.9 sq miles). Every time I went there for a week long SCUBA trip, the mosquitoes came out in force when the sun started setting. It sounds like nothing has changed.

 

The amazing part of this island is that it is approximately 6 miles long and 1 mile wide and the people there have automobiles! So where do they drive them?

[latunxitom]

It's pretty standard to have mosquitoes in rainforest areas!

[caribill]

 

The amazing part of this island is that it is approximately 6 miles long and 1 mile wide and the people there have automobiles! So where do they drive them?

 

Six miles one way and then back again.

[TW6cruiser]

We were on a partial panama canal transit at the end of Oct/beginning of Nov. Our stops were Aruba, Grand Cayman, Costa Rica, Panama, Cartegena. We used deet spray each day when we left the ship. No problems at all even in the rainforest in Costa Rica. But we also were never really off the ship at dusk except in Colon Panama.

[Tracey/Thom]

any problems in the last month in the Caribbean with the buggers??

 

Just returned from a November 18 cruise to Jamaica and Grand Cayman. I used insect repellant spray - no problems at all.