Aug. 20--It isn't a record year for mosquitoes -- despite how it seems when stepping outside -- but the prolonged wet weather has made for an unusually extended onslaught this season, experts said.
Phil Pellitteri and Dave Geske have never seen the constant mosquito hatchings that this summer's near-record rainfall has produced in many parts of Wisconsin.
"It's a nasty mosquito season, but not the worst," said Pellitteri, University of Wisconsin-Madison insect specialist. "But I've not seen these levels of continuous rainfall and flooding for a summer in some time."
Geske, La Crosse County mosquito control officer, said he has seen higher mosquito numbers in past years when flooding triggered heavy hatches.
What's noteworthy this season, he said, is "we have areas that used to be completely dry this time of the year but not this year.
"Some years we never treated mosquitoes in July, and we've been out every day," he said.
Cooler temperatures and no rain this week has provided a chance to catch up, Geske said.
"It would help," he said, "if we had more cool, dry and windy weather."
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