If there has been a downside to the rain Iowa has been receiving this spring and summer, it’s the bumper crop of mosquitoes that are out in force.
Zach Schumm is an Insect Specialist with Iowa State University, and tells Radio on the Go News there is only so much that we can do to fight off mosquitoes.
“A lot of different cities have mosquito control districts or just city entities or entities that will come out and spray mosquitoes that are in really problematic areas or in areas where they’ve identified mosquitoes that are carriers of some human pathogens like West Nile virus. So we can usually rely on those tools that hopefully the city or the county are implementing. For personal people and for individuals and personal property, you can try to remove those standing water areas however you can, or just use personal protective equipment like insect repellents, particularly ones with feet, or you can wear long pants and just wear appropriate clothing.”
There are other insects that are making it harder to be outdoors.
“There’s many different types of insects that can be bothering you out and about. Typically if we’re thinking really big clouds of insects that, you know, they kind of like swarm and hover around your head and sometimes it seems like they’re getting close to your ears. Now those tend to be things like midges and just kind of
generically call them gnats if you’d like. There’s so many different types of flies out there that can have similar behaviors. Those, those clouds, they’re not harmful to people, really, at all. They can just be a little bit annoying. So, you know, we’re getting, I think mosquitoes tend to be the bigger concern, but there are certainly some other flies that could really benefit from the added moisture that we’ve had this year as well.”
Up to 57 different species of mosquitoes have been found in Iowa.
