Crossin Jordan

Boarding the 11am LAX to ATL was nothing short of chaotic at gate 53B, so it really sucked that mosquitoes were discovered in the cargo area and we all had to deboard while they fumigate. The plane arrived from Guadalajara and I'm told they had nearly finished loading baggae when they found an infestation. They're still estimating 12:30 departure but there's no way on earth that will happen.

rylan

Probably a little late to fumigate if the plane arrived, was offloaded and loaded with bags for the next flight before they noticed the problem. I'm sure enough escaped to spread something.

Yellowjj

An infestation? Mosquitoes breed using stagnant water, so unless the aircraft was sitting for a few days in Guadalajara and someone left water in the cargo hold, that's kind of hard to believe. Possibly some other bug.

JohnnyRockets

I always wondered since the old days of spraying inside the cabin when travelling to certain countries, what about the cargo hold?

I guess I got my answers today.

AvidFlyer1990

Don't know about the cargo-hold, but they still do the spraying in-cabin for all/most of the international flights arriving into India!

BenA

In my experience, the spray that matters is the one LEAVING India... and it takes about 30 seconds upon arrival in Mumbai to understand why! I flew through the sparkling new CSA terminal within two weeks of its opening on DL, and the terminal was absolutely infested with mosquitoes. It was the worst we encountered anywhere in Mumbai - although given the location of the airport surrounded by some of the worst housing conditions in the city, it wasn't surprising.

The airport staff were all toting bug zappers - the electrified tennis racket looking things - to try to get the mosquito infestation under control. The most memorable part of that trip: while we were sitting in the lounge, one woman in particular was approaching her job with enthusiasm - passengers were even joining in the fun by pointing out bugs for her to zap.

The part that made it memorable: around the perimeter of the lounge were 5+ shiny new LCD TVs not yet in use. Bug zapper girl happened to chase one of the mosquitoes behind a TV with her tool, only to discover it made a wildly satisfying ZAPzapzapZap! noise - as the electricity from the racket completed a circuit with all the electronics in the TV.

Thinking she'd found the source where all the mosquitoes were spawning from, she eagerly proceeded to scrub every square inch of everything electronic in the lounge with the bug zapper...

Some poor warranty repair guy at Sony analyzing the product failures resulting from that must have been VERY confused as to how their product got caught in an epic lightning storm...

Moral of the story - standing water doesn't necessarily have to be directly in the airplane for aviation to be affected. If the surrounding conditions around the airport are poorly maintained enough, the infestation can spread... I have the DL boarding pass I used as a fly swatter in the club sprinkled with mosquito carnage to prove it.

(I hope that the CSA airport authority has gotten the mosquito problem under control since the airport opened - perhaps those who've visited more recently can share their experiences...)

AANYC1981

Try being stuck on a plane that's departed with a very hungry mosquito.....I kept getting bitten even through the AA blanket :/

AvidFlyer1990

Very interesting. My experience have always been when flying into India, and they announce it over the PA, before starting to spray, so that people who have allergies/asthma can cover their nose/face in advance. I usually fly in/out of DEL and take a domestic flight into BOM, so can't comment if they do it differently over there.

My most recent experience was early March 2015, and they didn't spray it in the EK flight that I was on, out of DEL. Also, in my experience, DEL has better ground services and excellent lounges, so always fly out of there, and have never experienced anything like the one you have described! I thought with the brand new terminal at BOM, mosquitoes would not be a problem. Guess I was wrong!!

Gargoyle

The coffee from the galley would qualify.

StayingHomeIsBetter

ROFL.

Mosquitoes love Sbux?

airindia787

While my experience with the new international terminal at BOM is limited, in my experience the problem is far worse at the domestic terminals. I speculate that the problem is in part due to the age of the buildings combined with the large number of bus gates. When boarding through one of those gates, I often see many GAs leave the boarding door wide open, which makes it quite easy for mosquitoes to enter the building.

GRALISTAIR

What shocked me is how big the mosquitos are in Alaska of all places.

jrl767

they're sometimes called moose-quitos

Esltroy

It's their state bird.

Yellowjj

LOL