A warmer climate means mosquitoes, ticks and their diseases will thrive

Longer summers and a warmer climate can create a breeding ground for ticks and mosquitoes, and help them spread diseases.       

Insect-borne illnesses from ticks and mosquitoes pose a real threat to human health. The most common ones are West Nile virus, Lyme disease, Zika virus and even malaria — which was recently discovered to have resurfaced in a few cases last month in Florida and Texas. 

Minnesota’s climate once provided a short window of warm months for pests and their illnesses to thrive, but climate change is now having an impact on the state’s environment.      

MPR News host Angela Davis continues her series of conversations on the health implications of climate change. Angela and her guests will talk about the diseases that pests can carry, how they can make us sick and how climate change impacts the breeding ground and migration of these insects. 

Guests: 

• Elizabeth Schiffman is the epidemiologist supervisor for the vector-borne disease unit with the Minnesota Department of Health.

• Dr. Jonathan Patz is a medical doctor in occupational and environmental medicine and the vilas distinguished achievement professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. His research focuses on the environmental health effects of climate change and solutions for global health.

• Kirk Johnson is a vector ecologist with the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District in St. Paul.  

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS. 

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.