“We do see a lot up here,” said Alex Carlson of the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District. “Just because we have so much standing water.” Anoka County has an abundance of bogs, lakes, marshes, ponds and rivers – which makes this area a mosquito hotspot. “This is kind of ground zero for the mosquitoes to hatch,” Carlson said. “There’s a lot of wetlands, a lot of shallow water with a thriving mosquito habitat. We’re seeing a lot already.” Mosquito population booming In Minnesota there are three things you can count on – winter, road construction and mosquitoes. Minnesota’s mosquito population is booming this year because the state is coming out of a two-year drought, which was followed by epic snow totals. “We had a lot of snow this winter that refilled all the ponds and marshes,” Carlson said. “The water levels are back to normal. Every time we see rain this year it’s going to have a lot of mosquito eggs hatch. That’s going to lead to just more in general.” Carlson says MMCD copters have already been out spraying areas that are mosquito breeding grounds. “We do our spring surveillance where we go see where the snow melt mosquitoes are appearing in the wetlands and we’ve seen a slight uptick this year from around this time last year – especially up here in Anoka County,” Carlson said… “Most mosquitoes that people encounter are just annoying, but occasionally there are a few around that could be disease spreading, so that’s an additional reason why it’s important to take precautions.” Mosquito tips According to Carlson there are a few things people should do to limit their interaction with mosquitoes. “The best thing you can do in general is to remove standing water,” Carlson said. “Anything that you have in your yard or around your neighborhood that can be easily eliminated. Containers flipped over, clogged gutters, stuff like that…Put a barrier between yourself and mosquitoes. Go to a screened porch when they are most active. You can set up a fan outside to disperse the mosquitoes a little bit.” Carlson recommends using mosquito repellant that contains deet, permethrin or picaridin. For those who want something more natural, Carlson suggests Repel which contains lemon eucalyptus. Despite Minnesota’s reputation for being the land of 10 million mosquitoes, Minneapolis was ranked 23rd in 2022 by Orkin on the top 50 mosquito cities list. Los Angeles is number one followed by Chicago and New York City.
BUZZ AND BITE! MOSQUITOES INVADE NORTH METRO AREA
BLAINE, Minn. (5/24/2023) – The buzz on mosquitoes this year is not good news for Anoka County.
