Minnesota’s Looking At A Bumper Crop Of Skeeters & Ticks This Year
I read the other day that we can expect the Earth's deadliest creatures will be in abundance this year. Of course, I'm referring to mosquitoes. Believe it or not, mosquitoes kill more people than any other creature on the planet. Most of those deaths are from malaria.
Unfortunately, it's not just mosquitoes that will be bugging (sorry) us this summer, ticks will be out in abundance also. One of my least favorite things to do in the summer is pick ticks off the dogs. Last summer one of our dogs ran through a patch of tall grass and I picked over 40 ticks off his chest and stomach.
According to Pest.org tick and mosquito populations will be greater than last year. We all know how mosquitoes love standing water to breed in and the weather people are predicting a hotter than usual and wetter than usual summer season.
Both of these obnoxious insects should be showing up toward the end of this month and can sometimes hang around until October. That's over 5 months of bugginess. The season for both these pests is expected to be that long because of the warmer and wetter months ahead. Warmer temps are expected to go through October.
On the bright side, at least we can look forward to some tropical type weather this summer. Just be sure to keep your mosquito repellent handy and always check your pets for ticks.
I think we can all agree that ticks and mosquitoes suck (sorry again, I can't help myself)
(Pest.org)
The State Symbols of Minnesota