Southern Wisconsin has been assaulted by water in recent weeks. There's not a county in the southern third of the state that has escaped flooding of some land.
Soon, however, we may encounter another flood, one of mosquitos and other critters who view standing water and rotting vegetables as heaven.
It's important to take precautions.
"There's going to be a lot of standing water, so it's going to be ripe for mosquitoes," Ken Leinbach, executive director of the Urban Ecology Center at Riverside Park in Milwaukee said Monday. "In four or five days is when the problem is going to start brewing."
He advised residents to get rid of standing water, which provides the perfect spot for mosquito eggs to hatch.
University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri predicts an influx of other critters.
"You tend to get an awful lot of insects that take advantage of decaying vegetable matter," he said. "A lot of things flood and are moist and starting to rot, so things like fruit flies and march flies, I can think of fungus gnats, all those kind of things are going to have the kind of conditions that will get them going big time just because you've got the right environment out there."
So be ready, Wisconsin residents. Water is one thing. Bloodsuckers and annoying little insects are another.
There may be, however, some insect positives from all the rain.
Spider mites, another pest, will be virtually nonexistent because of all the rain, and Pellitteri hopes the destructive gypsy moth population takes a hit.
"I'm real hopeful ... that this large amounts of moisture is going to promote a fungus disease that's going to knock the socks off the gypsy moth population in the state that has been building because we've had dry springs the last couple of years," Pellitteri said. "Every indication I'm seeing from the calls that are coming in is it's going pretty good right now. But things are wet are enough, that we have seen in past years with this kind of weather pattern that this fungus disease breaks out and their populations just crash."
That could be a savior for the trees that have been ravaged by the moths, which have been strong since 2005, when their population last plummeted.
It's a thin silver lining, of course, for the destruction this spring's flooding has caused. But a silver lining, nonethless.
Soon, however, we may encounter another flood, one of mosquitos and other critters who view standing water and rotting vegetables as heaven.
It's important to take precautions.
"There's going to be a lot of standing water, so it's going to be ripe for mosquitoes," Ken Leinbach, executive director of the Urban Ecology Center at Riverside Park in Milwaukee said Monday. "In four or five days is when the problem is going to start brewing."
He advised residents to get rid of standing water, which provides the perfect spot for mosquito eggs to hatch.
University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri predicts an influx of other critters.
"You tend to get an awful lot of insects that take advantage of decaying vegetable matter," he said. "A lot of things flood and are moist and starting to rot, so things like fruit flies and march flies, I can think of fungus gnats, all those kind of things are going to have the kind of conditions that will get them going big time just because you've got the right environment out there."
So be ready, Wisconsin residents. Water is one thing. Bloodsuckers and annoying little insects are another.
There may be, however, some insect positives from all the rain.
Spider mites, another pest, will be virtually nonexistent because of all the rain, and Pellitteri hopes the destructive gypsy moth population takes a hit.
"I'm real hopeful ... that this large amounts of moisture is going to promote a fungus disease that's going to knock the socks off the gypsy moth population in the state that has been building because we've had dry springs the last couple of years," Pellitteri said. "Every indication I'm seeing from the calls that are coming in is it's going pretty good right now. But things are wet are enough, that we have seen in past years with this kind of weather pattern that this fungus disease breaks out and their populations just crash."
That could be a savior for the trees that have been ravaged by the moths, which have been strong since 2005, when their population last plummeted.
It's a thin silver lining, of course, for the destruction this spring's flooding has caused. But a silver lining, nonethless.
