French helicopters spray mosquitos threatening to swamp Britain

Helicopters are being deployed to spray poison in the skies above northern France to wipe out swarms of mosquitoes that are threatening to cross the Channel into Britain.

French officials launched the commando operation after insect experts warned that as many as six billion mosquito larvae had started hatching in swampland near the France-Belgium border – less than 100 miles from the south coast of England.

Unusually warm, damp weather has brought on the mass hatching.



Experts are particularly concerned about the potential arrival of the Asian tiger mosquito – a striped monster almost twice the size of the average mosquito, and which can carry the chikungunya fever, which has already infected people in northern Italy.

Corn coated with bacteria that is harmless to man but lethal to mosquitoes was sprinkled over the area this week.

A local authority spokesman said the operation had been successful but had not eradicated the insects. "We need to remain vigilant to avoid an new outbreak," he said.