Aedes albopictus breeding in southern Germany, 2014

Larvae, pupae and eggs of the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus were found in Freiburg, southern Germany, after submission of an adult mosquito specimen from that area to the ‘Mückenatlas’, a German instrument of passive mosquito surveillance. While previously collected Ae. albopictus in Germany were trapped on, or close to, service stations on motorways, suggesting introduction by vehicles from southern Europe, these new specimens were out of flight distance from the motorway on the one hand and indicate local reproduction on the other. The findings call for a thorough active and passive surveillance in exposed geographic regions such as the relatively warm German Upper Rhine Valley to prevent Ae. albopictus from establishing.