UK Bank Holiday warning as ‘biblical plague’ of mosquitoes, roaches and bedbugs swamping Spanish resorts during heatwave

BRITS holidaying in Spain this summer are being warned they face an infestation of mosquitoes, cockroaches and bed bugs this summer.

Holidaymakers have been warned they are facing the worst heatwave in 20 years as temperatures hit 43C and bring with them wildfires and swarms of insects.

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The heat was followed by torrential rain, providing the insects with ideal conditions to reproduce at “lightning speed”, says Spanish environmental group ANECPLA.

The problem has been made worse by councils halting prevention campaigns due to costs and labor shortages during Covid, they claim.

“This summer is expected to be worse than usual,” said Jorge Galván, Director General of ANECPLA.

“The exorbitant temperatures of the last few days and the coming days, together with the torrential rains of spring, create the perfect storm for populations of mosquitoes, cockroaches, ticks, wasps and bed bugs to grow at lightning speed.”

The National Association of Environmental Health Companies urged councils to take action.

The President of the Group, Sergio Monge, said: There are very serious diseases that until recently seemed very foreign to us in Spain

“However, we have already started to experience large outbreaks, such as Lyme disease or Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, which are transmitted by ticks.”

According to the World Health Organization, bite-borne diseases currently cause more than 700,000 deaths worldwide each year.

Most of them are caused by mosquito bites, which can transmit such dangerous diseases as malaria, zika, dengue or chikungunya, among others.

Despite their tiny size, insects are considered the deadliest animals on the planet.

A West Nile fever outbreak in Spain in 2020 killed eight people.

The recent wildfires have devastated nearly 50,000 acres of land in the Sierra de la Culebra.

Local officials issued evacuation orders for 11 villages in the area while about 500 firefighters struggled to put out the fast-moving blazes.