(WKYT) – Flooding and summer heat might result in more mosquitoes in the next several days.
Luke Mathis is the Environmental Health Team Leader for the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department. He says temperatures this time of year are already ideal for mosquitoes, but what really drives populations up is precipitation and moisture.
Mosquitoes lay their eggs in stagnant water, and that’s where they emerge. Mathis says mosquito control often comes down to controlling those standing-water opportunities, and a lot of the problem can start right at home.
“A large percentage of mosquitoes, those that are a nuisance to people and health threats to people, can be found just around people’s yards,” said Mathis. “I mean, things like bird feeders or pet water dishes that aren’t changed out regularly. Gutters around your house, if those aren’t cleaned, are holding water. Any containers, plastic containers that are holding water. People can help themselves a whole lot with mosquitoes. If they just take a few moments every couple of days, once every couple of weeks, and just walk around their home and their properties and see if there’s anything collecting water that is providing mosquitoes an opportunity to lay eggs and emerge.”
So far this summer, Mathis says Lexington has been relatively dry until recently, which helped keep mosquito numbers down. The health department also runs mosquito traps across town all season long, and if a trap hits a threshold, it can trigger spraying in that area to knock down populations. Over the past four to five weeks, the traps haven’t come close to that threshold.
Now, after recent flooding and quieter weather, there’s more standing water for mosquitoes to breed in.
“When the precipitation, the water is available, and it’s allowed to stagnate, that’s when we’ll see a higher number of mosquitoes,” said Mathis. “I would expect that we’ll see some more mosquitoes here in the next several…next week anyway, or at least maybe even several days from the last rain.”
The Lexington-Fayette Health Department has larvicide tablets available for free, first come, first served. The product treats creeks and other water so that mosquitoes cannot utilize it to lay eggs in, and it has little to no effect on other organisms.
More information about how the health department is controlling the mosquito population can be found at this link, and the home prevention and control checklist can be downloaded by clicking here.