Unusually wet season will bring plenty of mosquitoes

The recent heavy rainfalls may have consequences that are more serious than canceled baseball games - mosquitoes.

While experts aren't expecting this new crop of mosquitoes to be anything record-breaking, the biting bugs, which breed in wet environments, will find plenty of spots to gather following an unusually wet season in the Chicago area.

So far this month, it's rained 14 times, and five of those storms produced more than a 1/2-inch of rain, according to George Balis, an entomologist with Clarke, an environmental firm in Roselle that provides mosquito control services.

In a rain's immediately aftermath, normal floodwater mosquitoes will come out. If the water is allowed to stagnate, a different breed called culex mosquitoes, or Northern house mosquitoes, can begin to show up.

"The northern house mosquito is normally associated with the West Nile virus," Balis said.

The rain and heat combination could increase the number of these culex mosquitoes, says Michael Szyska, director of the Northwest Mosquito Abatement District.

He said rainfall so far this year was actually not too much higher than normal, but it has been hotter than normal-temperatures in April were nearly 7 degrees above average, and temperatures in May and June have been around 3 degrees above average.

The hot temperatures create more stagnant water, which is good for the culex mosquitoes, he said.

"Those little ladies do well in hot dry conditions," he said. "Dry because it causes stagnant water. The culex mosquitoes prefer the filthy, sort of smelly organic water."

One of the primary places where these dangerous mosquitoes show up is in artificial containers like recycling bins, Balis said. This is because the relative small size of the containers allows the water to get warmer quickly, creating optimal conditions for mosquito breeding.

For now, municipalities aren't taking any radical steps to change the way they tackle mosquito problems.

Des Plaines Public Works Director Tim Oakley said that taking care of mosquito issues was standard for this time of year, and that nothing special was being done in the wake of the heavy rainfall.

Balis said that no matter what cities do, there are numerous things individuals can do to cut down on mosquito problems. The most important is also the most simple: using mosquito repellent regularly.

Northwest Mosquito Abatement has not found any cases of West Nile virus yet this year, though other counties in Illinois have, Szyska said.

"Its still too early in the season to make any really good predictions of what's going to happen," he said.