Mosquito Control Working To Ease The Biting Blues

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The whirling sound of a helicopter's blades in your neighborhood may mean you will be spared from those itchy, red bites this spring and summer.

Mosquito season is back. And the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District is at work early this year because of our warmer weather.

Mike McLean of the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District says that treatment to prevent the development of larvae mosquitoes this season has started two to three weeks earlier than normal.

Our unusual winter, however, wasn't all bad when it comes to the population of the biting bugs. McLean says that due to presence of very little snow melt, population numbers of mosquito species that develop in the water left-over from snow, are down quite a bit.

Mosquito Control has been out surveying mosquito-prone wetlands across the seven county metro area and technicians have discovered locations where mosquito larvae are already growing. The district began treating those areas Wednesday. Six-thousand acres will be covered using five helicopters.

Mosquito Control uses a product called BTI. It's a bacterium that is on a corn-cob granual, which has an appearance similar to grape-nuts. BTI is dispensed over water, as the mosquito larvae feed, they will eat this bacteria, and thus kill the mosquitoes developing at that time.

Of course, Mosquito Control can't get to every blood-loving bug. So, there are actions you can take to help reduce the mosquito population.

McLean suggests that when you're doing your spring yard clean-up, keep mosquitoes in mind. Any object that can hold water for more than a week is a potential mosquito breeding site.

Clearing yards and neighborhoods of areas and objects prone to standing water can make a big difference.