Mosquito seasons: Tracing more-than-human cohabitation across an urbanising floodplain

This article investigates more-than-human temporalities under urbanisation in the Upper Rhine Plain by tracing human-mosquito interactions. Drawing on historical documents and fieldwork, it examines how cohabitation is structured by shifting mosquito species and water management practices that reflect broader transformations in urban ecologies shaped by the intertwined rhythms of more-than-human life. Controlling water flows at different scales, from irrigated meadows to the Rhine straightening, reconfigured the amphibious landscape into habitable land, reducing the prevalence of fever mosquitoes. The resulting rise of floodwater mosquitoes, exacerbated by flood protection measures, necessitated continuous biological mosquito control in the increasingly urbanised alluvial plain. Most recently, climate change and global mobility have driven container-breeding Asian tiger mosquitoes into the metropolitan region, creating new tensions. Using the concept of milieu, the article explores how ecological and biological rhythms have been managed, regulated, and negotiated to enable cohabitation across time. It challenges the dominant linear narrative of the Rhine straightening and offers a more-than-human counter narrative of environmental change through mosquito control, landscape governance, and climate adaptation.