An Argentinian man took to Twitter to share a disturbing image of an unusually massive-looking mosquito after it flew through his window and met its demise after being bug-sprayed by his quick-acting mother.
Ezequiel Lobo, who lives in the Argentine city of Cordoba, posted an image of the enormous insect on Twitter, showing it alongside a normal-sized mosquito for comparison.
“Look at the size of the mosquito that just entered my window,” he wrote, adding that the unnerving arthropod “came in like a champion,” causing his mother to panic and spray it with Raid.
Lobo explained that he couldn’t find “anything similar” when he searched online. “Is it a new Chernobyl evolution or am I in Jumanji and didn't know it?” he asked.
The image quickly went viral, garnering nearly 130,000 tweets and being picked up by Spanish media.
Many tweeters assured Lobo, however, that while scary-looking, the insect in question was likely a psorophora ciliata mosquito, which luckily is not a disease-carrier.
Also on rt.com Did a gene-modified mosquito apocalypse plan backfire in Brazil? Study says ‘Yes,’ company says ‘No’Insect expert Michael H. Reiskind told CNN in 2018 that psorophora ciliata usually show up after flooding and while the bite can be very painful, they don't usually spread disease – and are only a risk to those who are allergic.
Spanish website Clarin reported that mosquitoes of this size had also appeared four years ago and scientists concluded that they arrive in large numbers after hurricanes. They are four times larger than an average-sized mosquito.
They can even be beneficial for humans as they help eliminate others species that carry diseases like Dengue fever and the Zika virus, the website said.
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