I work in mosquito control, not sure if I agree with the professor in the article. We had 12mm fall on August 9 but that’s not much rain at all, much less “heavy rain”. It was also the first and only rain we have seen after a very long dry spell so much of that would have simply soaked into the ground rather than pool and stagnate in many areas, as the water would need to stick around for over a week for the eggs to hatch and the larvae to develop and pupate into adults. Even if they pupated within a week of hatching, which is very fast and requires very warm water/weather, that would have only been 10 days ago which is a pretty quick turn around for emergence and seeking a blood meal to lay eggs.
Most mosquito activity in metro Vancouver will be influenced by the flooding along the Fraser River in spring time and tidally along coastal marshes. The river is low at the moment and hasn’t seen any recent spikes.
Likely these mosquitos have been around a long time and have been hiding out in local farm fields, trying to avoid the heat. Now that it’s cooled down they are seeking their blood meal or these local farm fields have been starting to harvest their crops, stirring up 3 months worth of mosquitos all at once.
What is this ‘rain’ the article speaks about?
I vaguely remember it, but nothing recent.
I work in mosquito control, not sure if I agree with the professor in the article. We had 12mm fall on August 9 but that’s not much rain at all, much less “heavy rain”. It was also the first and only rain we have seen after a very long dry spell so much of that would have simply soaked into the ground rather than pool and stagnate in many areas, as the water would need to stick around for over a week for the eggs to hatch and the larvae to develop and pupate into adults. Even if they pupated within a week of hatching, which is very fast and requires very warm water/weather, that would have only been 10 days ago which is a pretty quick turn around for emergence and seeking a blood meal to lay eggs.
Most mosquito activity in metro Vancouver will be influenced by the flooding along the Fraser River in spring time and tidally along coastal marshes. The river is low at the moment and hasn’t seen any recent spikes.
Likely these mosquitos have been around a long time and have been hiding out in local farm fields, trying to avoid the heat. Now that it’s cooled down they are seeking their blood meal or these local farm fields have been starting to harvest their crops, stirring up 3 months worth of mosquitos all at once.