There were plenty of folks who believed the rain in North Texas was a welcome sign after the months-long summer drought we were experiencing, and no doubt it did well to fertilize and replenish our land, but with the rain comes terrible news.
Mosquitoes are back, y'all. And according to Texas A&M professor Sonja Swiger, they are "bigger and meaner" than usual.
Swiger, an entomology professor at the school, told Dallas News that these are no ordinary skeeters, but "floodwater mosquitoes," which are "bigger and more aggressive than their container- and stagnant-water breeding counterparts."
Some of these floodwater mosquitoes have been known to grow as large as 1 to 1.5 inches, compared to others that top out at a quarter-inch.
One particular species, the Psorophora, is roughly 20 times larger than more common species!
Swiger said, "We got the rain we really, really needed, but now we have the mosquitoes, and some are really enormous."
Floodwater varieties are the most difficult species to control, and get "right to biting" according to Swiger because of their short lifespan, topping out at just a couple of weeks.
To repel these, along with the 80 or so species of mosquitoes that call Texas home, Swiger recommends using products with DEET, avoiding the outdoors at dusk and dawn and covering exposed skin with long sleeves and pants, if possible.
One positive aspect is that floodwater mosquitoes do not carry West Nile Virus or other diseases. Swiger also added, "at least the grass is green."
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