Mosquitoes a concern for flooded areas

Residents living in flooded areas have something else to worry about ... lots of mosquitoes.

Areas that have received a lot of rain will likely have to deal with big batches of the bugs.

Illinois State Department of Public Health spokesperson Melaney Arnold says the good news is that these are floodwater mosquitoes ... not the house mosquitoes that often carry the West Nile Virus. Still ... she says the state has already begun surveillance for West Nile in Illinois.

“And we typically start to see either positive bird or mosquito pool come around May 8th is when we saw the first bird test positive last year. So it’s the early part of May that we do start to see West Nile Virus activity. The first human case isn’t generally until around the first of July,” she said.

Arnold says house mosquitoes usually emerge once the waters recede ... and any pools of stagnant water are left ... which is where they like to breed.

Brad Palmer, WSIU

Posted in: flooding,Illinois State Department of Public Health,mosquitoes,West Nile Virus