2016 Volume 67 Issue 4 Pages 243-258
On 11 March 2011, a massive earthquake and resulting tsunamis caused widespread destruction across north-eastern Japan. To monitor potential population outbreaks resulting from the damage, occurrence of vector mosquitoes was continuously monitored until August 2015 in three cities: Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture and Kesennuma, and Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture.
An outbreak of adult Culex pipiens group appeared in 2011, the year the earthquake occurred, and large numbers of adult Cx. inatomii appeared the following year. However, beginning in 2012, the number of Cx. pipiens group dramatically decreased, and in 2014, the number of Cx. inatomii also began decreasing considerably. Large numbers of larvae of Aedes togoi, Cx. pipiens group and Ae. japonicus were frequently collected from a number of waste containers under vault toilets and septic tanks that had been damaged and exposed by the tsunami. Large numbers of Cx. inatomii larvae were collected from flooded rice paddies and street gutters. In 2014, as the number of those sites decreased markedly due to land reclamation and efforts to raise land levels, the number of larvae collected also decreased sharply.
Damage from the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami caused outbreak of several mosquito species. However, pools of standing water where mosquitoes can breed have disappeared as land levels have been raised and similar efforts have proceeded. This presumably halted the increased proliferation of mosquitoes.
