26 MAY 1998. U.S.A.: PESTS
Anita Manning, USA Today, reports that ENSO-linked climate
conditions are spawning bumper crops of arthropod pests, especially ants,
but including other pests such as Africanized bees spreading north to Nevada,
grasshoppers in California and Arizona, mosquitoes in the east and slugs
in Golden Gate Bridge, California. This is expected to be a very bad year
for Lyme Disease, because ticks overwintered well in the warm conditions,
and their host species are now abundant. Gardeners are having to contend
with early and abundant pest species, Not all of this can or should be
blamed on EN directly, much of it is driven by rain amount and timing.
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1997 El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO 97-98)