‘Record-breaking’ bites from blood-sucking black fly as region sprays 5,000 litres of insecticide near Spain’s Costa Blanca

A SUMMER of ‘plagues’ has been predicted by a leading Spanish pest-control association as the country sees record-breaking bites from the ‘blood-sucking black fly‘.

Spain’s National Association of Health Companies (Anecpla) warned high temperatures would bring increased number of ‘mosquitoes, wasps, cockroaches, flies and even rodents’ across the country.

The Ebro delta, one of Spain’s worst-affected regions, has already seen ‘record-breaking’ numbers of bites from the mosca chupasangre – or ‘blood-sucking black fly’ – due to ‘uncontrolled proliferation’.

The spread has got so bad in the Valencia Community that the Ribera region has already sprayed 5,000 litres of insecticide around the Jucar river.

Helicopters were deployed to drop the biological agent on the region bordering the Costa Blanca, according to a statement from the Mancomunitat de la Ribera.

The black fly, present throughout Spain, draws blood from its victims like a mosquito.

Its bite can reportedly cause an ‘intense, long-lasting and painful itching that can last for weeks’, according to Anecpla.

Victims may on occasion require medical attention.