This has been a banner summer for bugs. The hot and humid weather has been particularly good for mosquitos, according to Mt. St. Joseph University Professor Emeritus Gene Kritsky.
“Whenever you have temperatures that are warm like we have no, where the average low temperature is above 71 Fahrenheit, mosquitoes can breed a generation in eight days,” he says. “So every day we have more and more mosquitoes emerging.”
Krisky says prevention is perhaps the best defense. He says that means making sure there's no standing water on your property for mosquitoes to breed in.
He says you don't have to choose between mosquitoes and chemicals to enjoy the outdoors.
“Get a fan. Get a strong fan to blow over your back porch, or wherever you like to sit out and that’ll dissipate the carbon dioxide that you’re exhaling and cool your body temperature, so we’ll be less likely to get bitten,” he says. “If you need to, there’s always a relative that really gets bit when no one else does. Invite them over and sit them off to the side.”
Kritsky says it’s not just mosquitoes that are thriving this summer.
“Especially in tall grass, the chiggers and ticks are really good this year,” he says. “We were in tall grass in southern Indiana. I had 10 ticks on me that night.”
Kritsky says there are things you can do to discourage ticks in your yard.
“One of the things you can do is create a barrier around your backyard, which is usually about a yard wide. Keep the grass well mowed,” he says. “Some people even put down a little gravel strip along the edge of your property, so the ticks don’t walk across from the tall grass into the backyard proper.”
Kritsky says there's at least one insect beneficial to humans that does well in the heat and humidity: honeybees. Their populations have been decreasing because pesticide usage has been increasing.
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