Blistering heatwave gives Japan respite from typical summer pest: the mosquito
The country has been sweating through a record, deadly heatwave
Record temperatures across Japan this summer have caused dozens of deaths from heatstroke and left thousands more hospitalised.
Similarly, crops are withering, reservoirs are running dry and demand for energy to power air conditioning units has soared.
The good news, however, is that the heatwave has curtailed the activities of one of the most annoying staples of a Japanese summer: mosquitoes.
Research by scientists at the Institute of Pest Control Technology, in Chiba Prefecture, has shown that mosquitoes become far less active when temperatures rise above 35 degrees Celsius and are less inclined to seek out victims from whom to suck blood.
Conditions this year – with 927 Meteorological Agency stations across the nation reporting highs above 35 degrees on 3,127 occasions in July alone, up sharply from 812 in the same month last year – have been far from ideal for mosquitoes.
The town of Kumagaya, in Saitama Prefecture north of Tokyo, set a record high temperature for the whole of Japan in early August, reporting 41.1 degrees.
