Entomologist weighs in on advent of mosquito season

The more it warms-up and rains throughout the summer you’ll start seeing more mosquitoes.

In Michigan we have about 70 mosquito species. But right now we’re only seeing what mosquito experts call, snow-melt mosquitoes, or spring-rain mosquitoes.

If you feel yourself being bit, it’s because of female mosquitoes. They use blood to help breed their eggs which are laid in water. As the weather warms the eggs hatch and begin the mosquito stages.

Ned Walker a Michigan State University entomologist and EEB core faculty explains “after the adult mosquitoes emerge, they rest in vegetation like at the perimeter of the house if you have bushes and shrubs or wooded areas, those rest in there. That’s where they hangout until the evening comes when their activity starts.”

Walker says he’s always concerned about mosquito-borne viruses in Michigan like West Nile virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis, known as Triple E. These viruses are seen more frequently in the lower part of our state.

Walker says the state health department has a laboratory near the Lansing airport to test for viruses we’ll see this season.

Read more and see video at WILX.