Itching and scratching: We're at the height of mosquito season, and this year's a rough one!
Itching and scratching: We`re at the height of mosquito season, and this year`s a rough one!
Itching and scratching: We`re at the height of mosquito season, and this year`s a rough one!
MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- You probably noticed them at your Fourth of July barbecue -- buzzing in your ears, swooping down for a bite! We are now at the height of mosquito season, and experts say this year is a rough one!
You probably started noticing the mosquitoes right after Memorial Day -- and the constant rain has helped them to continue hatching.
The Hale family left the Lion's Den Gorge in Grafton with the picnic dinner they packed still in the bag on Monday, July 7th.
"We got about a half hour in for the hike and we thought we would turn around because the mosquitoes were so terrible," Melissa Hale said.
The wetlands in the Grafton Nature Preserve -- not to mention the standing water along its trails have become a hatching ground for mosquitoes.
"My arms are like -- inflamed," Charlie Hickenlooper said.
Hickenlooper left the gorge Monday with some sizable mosquito bites.
"We would have stayed longer but like, we were getting eaten. It's like every five seconds we had to be swatting the bugs away," Hickenlooper said.
"We are most definitely in the height of mosquito season," Jeff DeCoste with the Mosquito Squad of Waukesha County said.
The Mosquito Squad's phone was ringing off the hook on Monday. On the other end -- customers wanting their trees and shrubs sprayed with repellent.
"Since this weekend it's been crazy, and that's a combination of a lot of people being outside during the Fourth of July, in conjunction with the amount of rain we've had over the last couple of weeks," DeCoste said.
DeCoste says this mosquito season is worst that years past.
"It's really started to come out in full force in a lot of areas," DeCoste said.
DeCoste recommends eliminating any standing water on your property that you might find under potted plants or in dog bowls.
"What mosquitoes need in order to hatch is a little bit or warm weather and a little bit of water, even something about the size of bottle cap worth of water at the right temperature will get mosquitoes hatching," DeCoste said.
The Mosquito Squad says they got anywhere from 50 to 75 calls for service on Monday.
They've gotten a lot of calls in particular from people in Muskego, Cedarburg and Brookfield.
We're told mosquito season can last until October -- if the conditions are right for hatching.