Mosquitoes are scarier than you think

In Texas, we’re more likely to treat the itchiness of a mosquito bite than to prevent that bite before it happens. Why? We’ve been lucky. In living memory, mosquitoes in Texas are a summer nuisance, not a plague. People we don’t know, in countries we rarely visit, used to be the ones at risk. But now mosquitoes and the illnesses they carry are pretty much everywhere.

Three things heighten this threat for Texans. First, our climate is friendly to mosquitoes — and getting even friendlier with climate change. Second, Texas residents travel frequently to and from mosquito-affected areas. Third, the mosquito-borne Zika virus is here: The Houston Chronicle reported recently thatHouston is uniquely at risk for Zika