Mosquito-free summer underway due to extreme drought, sizzling temperatures
MILWAUKEE- We have gone 33 days without significant rain, and such, we in an extreme drought.
People who have spent time near water, or outdoors at night may have noticed: there's not many mosquitoes around this summer.
And our hot weather is to blame.
The bug exhibit is a novelty at the Milwaukee County Museum, because people in southeast Wisconsin aren't seeing a lot of live insects this summer.
We've been having drought conditions, combined with the high temperatures and lack of moisture -- we're having a mosquito-free summer.
There are actually 54 different kinds of mosquitoes in Wisconsin. But the kind that bother us the most are summer floodwater mosquitoes. And with little or no rain the little pests just haven't been around. Parents aren't complaining.
"We're always outside and it has been nice this summer not to have to deal with them," said one parent to TODAY'S TMJ4.
But entomologists warn -- they're not far away.
"I hate to break the news that mosquitoes are really there in waiting," said entomologist Susan Borkin. "We have some mosquitoes that lay their eggs adjacent to pond edges and that type of thing and when we do get rainfall and those areas flood, those eggs will hatch and we'll have mosquitoes a week to two weeks later,"
So don't put the bug spray away just yet.
"If the temperatures stay cooler and we continue to have rain then we can expect that mosquitoes will make their presence known again," said Borkin.
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