Things Will Begin To Fray
“A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.” B. Franklin
"Of all the crises triggered by America's property crash, the economists never predicted a plague of blood-sucking mosquitoes — spawned in the stagnant swimming pools of unsold or abandoned luxury homes.
The phenomenon is threatening to turn into a disaster for cities such as Las Vegas, where land values in some areas tripled every year during the boom, prompting developers to build thousands of million-dollar mansions, complete with lavishly proportioned swimming pools and outdoor Jacuzzis.
Unsurprisingly, no one gave much thought to what would happen if most of the sparkling desert oases were left to stagnate in the desert heat — a result of owners either defaulting on their superjumbo mortgages, or developers being unable to get rid of their inventory amid the global credit crunch that has brought America's lending industry almost to a halt.
Now, the very developments where upwardly-mobile homeowners once splashed around under clear blue skies are quickly turning into the world's unlikeliest swampland — and an ideal place for mosquitoes to lay their eggs.
In the comfort of a solar-heated swimming pool, mosquito eggs can hatch into larvae (known as wrigglers) in about 48 hours, and become adults — able to travel as far as 20 miles from their breeding site."
The phenomenon is threatening to turn into a disaster for cities such as Las Vegas, where land values in some areas tripled every year during the boom, prompting developers to build thousands of million-dollar mansions, complete with lavishly proportioned swimming pools and outdoor Jacuzzis.
Unsurprisingly, no one gave much thought to what would happen if most of the sparkling desert oases were left to stagnate in the desert heat — a result of owners either defaulting on their superjumbo mortgages, or developers being unable to get rid of their inventory amid the global credit crunch that has brought America's lending industry almost to a halt.
Now, the very developments where upwardly-mobile homeowners once splashed around under clear blue skies are quickly turning into the world's unlikeliest swampland — and an ideal place for mosquitoes to lay their eggs.
In the comfort of a solar-heated swimming pool, mosquito eggs can hatch into larvae (known as wrigglers) in about 48 hours, and become adults — able to travel as far as 20 miles from their breeding site."
posted by nolocontendere at 9:20 PM
6 Comments:
yet another reason to avoid that unpleasant place, as I am a mosquito magnet.
Who's dumb enough to leave a full, unchlorinated swimming pool or spa when they move out? This is just the beginning. As the nations infrastructure crumbles, as money for necessary water treatment and sewer repairs runs dry in the inner cities, as garbage collection becomes bimonthly instead of weekly due to shortages in city cofers, disease will run rampant. This will only affect the poor ofcourse, who have to live in the inner cites.
The rich, who suck all of their money from the poor, will have everything they need in ship shape.
"Who's dumb enough to leave a full, unchlorinated swimming pool or spa when they move out?"
Lots of Americans, I'm afraid. It's a fair amount of work to drain a pool, and chlorine only lasts so long.
This mosquito scourge struck me as one of those signs that the process of unraveling has begun. Poor choices down the line, from politics to environment to war to the economy, we're about to see an epidemic of unintended consequences while life as we know it begins to change forever. If, say. this mosquito infestation brings an outbreak of west nile virus, who could have foreseen the housing crash would have been responsible for a viral epidemic?
Be good to the birds and they'll help control them. Birds love to feast on insects. I put a bird feeder out and put leftover bread in it about once a week. I've watched them feeding on bugs around my window at the same time they come for bread.
good advice, Nick. the larger issue I think is that those with economic power and high potential profits are not interested in the profound long term effects of their efforts. Indeed, they try to cover them up and , being campaign donors, they influence the government to do the same. But mother nature does not entertain lobbyists nor does she buy cars and weapons and toys and tobacco. She has the real power and will eventually restore natural balance by unleashing it.
Justice would be served if the profiteers were the first to suffer but ofcourse it will be the vulnerable and the poor instead.
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