Warm winter means early arrival of mosquitoes

May 13, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

Your days of enjoying spring days grilling or chilling in the backyard may be numbered.

Experts say the first batch of mosquito eggs are hatching early — up to six weeks ahead of schedule — in areas that have had a mild winter and warm spring.

Pest-control companies, including Orkin and Northwest Exterminating, already have seen their call volume in some places go up as much as 40 percent compared to last year. For Northwest, this year marked the first time it sprayed for mosquitoes in March since the company started its mosquito-treatment service about nine years ago.

But while the growing buzz in some regions is that this may be one of the worst mosquito years ever, early hatches don’t always mean mosquitoes will swarm more than they usually do later in the year.

“What’s really going to make the difference for mosquitoes this summer — more than the heat — is the wetness,” said University of Georgia entomologist Elmer Gray.

A lot of rain means wet yards, puddles and pools of water — all of which are breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes lay eggs in standing water, and their larvae live and grow there. And it doesn’t take much water — a little in a saucer underneath a potted plant is enough to breed many larvae.

It’s not just mosquitoes that are early this year. Ants, kudzu bugs, ticks — you name it — they are crawling en masse.

“There wasn’t a cold winter, and that increased their ability to breed and what you might say ‘remain viable,’” said Jerry Hatch, a staff entomologist at Northwest.

Gray said health officials are concerned about West Nile virus activity peaking earlier this year, ahead of its usual time in August and September.

At night, a variety of mosquitoes go in for the “kill,” and they are more likely to circulate and hesitate than the daytime-biting and aggressive Asian Tiger. Some mosquitoes live only a week or two. And they aren’t good at flying, traveling no more than about 100 yards.

Gray said getting your yard professionally treated can be effective. Companies typically use a pyrethrum-based product (using extract from chrysanthemums) or a synthetic version in their mosquito treatments, and the treatments typically knock back the mosquitoes for a month at a time.

Gray said people also can do it themselves by buying mosquito spray and treating bushes and the underside of leaves every 10 days or after rain. As with all pesticides, he said, “it’s extremely important to follow the label instruction.”

Residents can take plenty of other steps to help keep mosquitoes at bay, he said. It’s critical, he said, to rid your area of standing water as much as possible. And get your neighbors on board, too, he said.

“If your neighbor has a lot of water in their yard, their problem becomes your problem,” he said.

Gray also recommends using bug spray with DEET to keep mosquitoes away. DEET doesn’t kill mosquitoes but confuses them so they look elsewhere for food. Products with Picaridin, a synthetic chemical and alternative to DEET, also are effective, he said.