It sounds like an entomological contradiction: Southwest Florida has been virtually rain-free since May 16, and mosquitoes have been making life miserable this week for people in some areas.

But, contrary to popular belief, rain doesn’t always trigger mosquito breeding in Southwest Florida, and lack of rain doesn’t always mean a lack of mosquitoes.

“I think they’re worse than they’ve ever been,” St. James City resident Mike Grainger said. “It’s bad. They get in a cloud, 15 or 20 of them at a time flying in front of you.”

At the other end of the island, in Bokeelia, Jim Patterson agreed.

“They’re intense,” he said. “When I take my dogs for a walk in the morning, I’ve got to dress in long jeans, a long-sleeve shirt with the collar up and a hat on, and they still try to get up my nose and in my ears. If you wear flip-flops, they’ll eat your toes.

“The thing is, we haven’t had any rain. Where are they coming from?”

Like many people, Patterson thinks that rain drives mosquito production: Rain creates standing water; mosquitoes lay eggs in the water, and, boom, a swarm is born.

That’s not necessarily the case.

Mosquito species can be divided into two types: Old-water and new-water mosquitoes.

Old-water mosquitoes do, indeed, lay eggs on standing water — shallow pools, ditches, bromeliads, old tires, bird baths and so on — and rain provides standing water.

“Water must be standing five to seven days before we see rain-driven freshwater mosquitoes,” said Shelly Redovan, spokeswoman for the Lee County Mosquito Control District.

Because Southwest Florida has been so dry, though, when 1.5 inches of rain fell May 15, it soaked into the ground, so the old-water mosquitoes had no place to lay eggs.

New-water mosquitoes, — freshwater and saltwater — lay eggs on dry, flood-prone ground, and those eggs hatch when covered by water.

Freshwater new-water mosquitoes prefer places such as North Fort Myers, where sheetflow moving south from Charlotte County after heavy rains can cover the eggs.

“They also like the improved pasture lands around Alva,” Redovan said. “We haven’t had any rain, so those areas haven’t had a hatch-off.”

Saltwater new-water mosquitoes lay eggs on dry ground in coastal areas such as mangrove swamps, and those eggs hatch when tides cover them.

Recent extreme high tides associated with the full moon of May 17 have covered saltwater new-water mosquito eggs, which is why mosquitoes are in coastal areas.

“Rain is not the only factor,” Redovan said. “The big difference between us and up North is we’re more heavily impacted by tidal conditions.”

Mosquito control personnel trap and count mosquitoes throughout Lee County to determine where to spray. When they catch 50 in a trap, the district sends a truck to spray; when they catch mosquitoes in the hundreds, they send aircraft.

Recent trap numbers include Lehigh Acres with seven mosquitoes, Boca Grande with 78, Bokeelia with 135, Captiva with 283, and St. James City with 1,348.

Forty-eight mosquito species inhabit Lee County, and saltwater new-water mosquitoes are the most common.

Aedes taeniorhynchus is the species doing most of the biting this week.

Also known as the black salt marsh mosquito, taeniorhynchus is a nasty biter that can fly up to 20 miles for a meal.

This week, mosquito district aircraft hit both ends of Pine Island, Estero, southwest and northwest Cape Coral, and were scheduled to spray the outer islands, Bokeelia and Iona, on Friday night.

Although the district has had to eliminate some positions due to budget cuts, it has not eliminated positions essential to fighting mosquitoes, Redovan said.

The greatest hindrance to fighting mosquitoes is the fact that the district is not allowed to spray for adults on state and federal land.

“Mosquitoes don’t like to be crowded: They don’t stay where they hatch,” Redovan said. “So we go out and spray, and the next day, they migrate in from state and federal lands.”

Lee County isn’t alone in its mosquito infestation.

“We’re getting a similar kind of thing,” said Frank Van Essen, executive director of the Collier County Mosquito Control District. “We’re just starting to see the salt-marsh mosquito activity because of the tides.”

Alerts for May:

• 05/24/11 – Florida accepting applications for the southern pine beetle prevention program – See this species on Featured Creatures
• 05/23/11 – McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity Newsletter – April 2011
• 05/23/11 – U.S. survey reports 2010/2011 winter honey bee losses
• 05/23/11 – Florida DoH Arbovirus Summary – through 21 May 2011 (PDF) – Summary Archives – Human Arbovirus cases in Florida, 2006—2010 – Press releases on human infections and deaths – Repellents, Traps, Virus Information, Maps, etc.
• 05/20/11 – Honky-tonk cicadas – See Featured Creatures for the cicadas of Florida
• 05/20/11 – Mexican fruit fly quarantine area in Cameron County, Texas – See this species on Featured Creatures
• 05/20/11 – American Mosquito Control Association Webinar on Strategies for Safer Pesticide Applications – 3 June 2011
• 05/16/11 – New Featured Creatures – spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura)
• 05/16/11 – Bacterium found to kill malaria in mosquitoes
• 05/13/11 – UF/IFAS Entomology and Nematology newsletter – May 2011
• 05/13/11 – USDA prepares draft environmental assessment for pest-resistant cotton
• 05/11/11 – Africanized bee removal in Florida
• 05/11/11 – New insect repellant may be thousands of times stronger than DEET
• 05/10/11 – “Black olive” or bucida caterpillar – a nuisance pest in south Florida (PDF) – Staining associated with this species and the Eriophyid mite connection (PDF)
• 05/09/11 – UF/IFAS scientists report insecticide resistance developing in psyllid that carries citrus greening – See this species on Featured Creatures
• 05/09/11 – More on zombie ants – (03/07/11) Four new species of zombie ant fungi discovered in Brazilian rainforest
• 05/09/11 – Insects with a third pair of wings
• 05/06/11 – Is the primary reason humans get malaria because we have smelly feet?

http://embed.break.com/NjU1NDIw
Giant Ant Colony is a World Wonder – Watch more Funny Videos

At our Melbourne pest control and lawn services store, not only can you get professional products, but you can also get advice from our professionally trained technicians. They will give you information like how, what, where, and why to apply different products for different pests.

Florida DO It Yourself Pest Termite Control & Lawn Care

No Pests Blog – JP McHale Pest Management Inc.

National Pesticide Information Center ~ Pro Best Pest

How to Protect Yourself from the Dangers of Mosquito Bites

Watch this trailer to help Capella University donate $0.50 to education programs worldwide

Cicadas Being Used As Jewelry

Bed Bug Information | Smithereen Blog

Bug factory to help Everglades fight plant invaders

By Shurna Robbins

MIAMI | Fri May 13, 2011 5:37pm EDT

(Reuters) – Scientists are planning to scale up deployment of laboratory-bred insects to battle invading plant species that threaten to throttle parts of Florida’s ecologically fragile Everglades wetlands.

The plant- and seed-eating bugs, which include moths, mites and weevils, act as biological control agents — basically environmental gamekeepers — against the invaders.

They are to be produced in their hundreds of thousands at a new research laboratory planned jointly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District.

The new “bug factory” facility is scheduled to open on September 2012 and aims to saturate areas infested with invasive plant species in a $16 million program over 20 years.

This is considered a modest investment compared to the untold billions in environmental damage that can be inflicted by the nonnative invaders.

While herbicides and physical eradication have been used for decades, scientists consider mass-produced biocontrol bugs a more effective weapon

“The goal (for each insect type) is to control 90 percent of the proliferation,” said USDA’s lead scientist for the project, Ted Center. “It won’t eradicate the invasive species, but it will do a lot of the work for us.”

The Everglades wetlands at the southern end of the Florida peninsula are one of the United States’ most famous natural attractions.

Covering two million acres and designated as an endangered World Heritage site by UNESCO, they are a mosaic of marshland and tree islands, famous for crocodiles, manatees, panthers, and exotic birds, including plants and animals found nowhere else.

In recent decades, the Everglades ecosystem has been weakened by growing urbanization and polluted run-off from nearby farming and cattle operations.

“When you are flying over the Everglades, you will see houses and malls just on the other side of the levees,” said LeRoy Rodgers of the South Florida Water Management District.

HAVOC TO THE HABITAT

While public attention has focused on the more visible invasive animal species, such as the Burmese Python that has tangled with local alligators, experts say the plant invaders can cause just as much, if not more, havoc to the habitat.

One leafy invader is the fast-growing Old World Climbing Fern which creeps up trees, blankets land with vegetation and accelerates the spread of wildfires.

“Some tree islands have collapsed from the weight of the ferns,” said Center, adding that one biocontrol agent, an Australian moth, has achieved some limited success in pushing back the plant.

Another creeping interloper is the Brazilian pepper, which has infested over 700,000 acres of public and private lands.

Some 1,400 of more than 25,000 nonnative plants imported into Florida have established populations in the wild, with nearly 70 identified as ecosystem-damaging plants, according to research studies.

The USDA has targeted 11 invasive plants as serious threats to the Everglades.

Scientists believe the trespassing species come from the hundreds of exotic plants imported into nurseries in Florida every year.

The nurseries are virtually unregulated, catering to an extensive gardening market that must meet demand for new varieties of ornamental plants.

Some of the exotic plants propagate into the wild tropical wetlands, where they have no natural predators, said Center.

Pushing back against the invaders can take much longer.

Searching for an insect predator for the Brazilian pepper, the USDA is three years into the hunt for a winning biocontrol bug with scientists making several trips to Brazil, collecting 12 species to be used to build lab colonies for testing.

Due to a “glacially slow” regulatory process, it can take several more years for a biocontrol insect to be released into the Everglades. The period from identifying an invasive species through to its eventual reduction can run to about 20 years.

U.S. scientists are also traveling to China, Australia and Argentina to look for potential biobug gamekeepers.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Jerry Norton)

By VICTORIA MACCHI

Naples Daily News

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/14/2216545/love-bugs-a-sticky-problem-for.html#ixzz1MWsi4KSu