UK cities becoming Mosquito friendly habitats (Scientist)

Warmer ambient temperatures and more water containers ingardens are bringing mosquitoes into closer contact with people, say scientists.

Writing in their paper, Dr Callaghan and colleague Susannah Townroe observed: "Within the UK, [water butts - a container for rainwater] are becoming increasingly common in residential gardens.

"A severe drought and subsequent hosepipe ban in the spring of 2012 across southern and eastern England led to reports of hugely inflated sales of water butt containers," they added.

The number of water containers continues to grow as households look to save money and water

"Water butts collect rain from roof guttering along with vegetation, animal detritus... providing both a habitat and food resource for mosquito larvae."

They explained that while individual containers were relatively small, when all the water butts in the area were combined, it represented a "large area of habitat" for breeding mosquitoes.

The authors added: "This, in combination with the [urban heat island] effect... may favour mosquito larval production in urban habitats."

In order to test this idea, the researchers placed water containers in a number of urban and rural residential gardens.

"We found fewer species of mosquitoes in urban environments compared with rural environments, but the species that were there were much more abundant," Dr Callaghan told BBC News.

"The one that was most abundant is calledCulex pipiens, and in other countries C. pipienscarry diseases such as West Nile Virus."

The other species of mosquito that the researchers found in the study's water containers was Anopheles plumbeus, which has been shown to be a "reasonably good vector of malaria".

Dr Callaghan said: "The main finding is that these mosquitoes are right next to people's houses and the Anopheles mosquito we found is a human-biting species and it can transmit malaria.