Mosquito-Borne Illness: Save the Doggies

I've talked before about mosquito-borne illnesses. Mosquitoes kill over a million people every year. We could kill all the mosquitoes everywhere with minimal environmental impact, and save all those lives. But we don't. After all, those diseases don't happen here. I mean, sure, West Nile Virus has killed nearly 2,000 Americans since 1999, but that's a rounding error, right?

Well, the Zika virus has peoples' attention now. I'd rather kill all the mosquitoes before this virus starts to spread further. But that kind of forward-thinking argument doesn't get very far sometimes, so let me make a more immediate one: mosquitoes are directly costing you money every year.

Heartworm is mosquito-borne, and infects dogs and cats across the United States. I'm having trouble finding the number of reported cases in the US, but there are an estimated 160 million cats and dogs in the country. Part of good pet-care is giving your cat or dog a heartworm preventative each month, like HeartGard. Supposing you get a good deal, that's $50/year. Supposing only 10% of pets actually get that medication, that's $8 billion dollars a year we collectively spend on heartworm prevention. And I bet that 10% number is way low.

We could kill all the mosquitoes for far less than that. Why don't we?