Skeeters (mosquitoes) (Austin, Round Rock, West: house, neighborhood, living)

[ilikeoc]

My wife and I are considering relocating to Austin. We are retired and can live pretty much anywhere. The lake areas look beautiful, but one question comes to mind with all the heat and humidity-skeeters. How big a problem are the mosquitoes there?

[A-Tex]

They're prevalent and large enough to carry off pets and small children. (Only kind of kidding about that last part.) It's October and they're still out in full force. People contract West Nile Virus here and some have died. Austin is not a place to move if you are trying to avoid mosquitoes.

[Trainwreck20]

I got bit about three times this summer, maybe four, and it was the worst year in many. Some areas were quite bad, or at least that is my understanding. All my incidents occurred in my back yard. Spent all weekend almost every weekend at the lake and never saw one. Some years, there are periods of time that skeeters are bad. On a typical summer, it is too hot and dry for them to be too pervasive, although you will almost always find some in the green belts and such.

They are NOTHING like Minnesota or the Texas coast.

[cBach]

There are absolutely no mosquitoes here, I haven't gotten bitten all year. Even on campouts I don't need bug spray. This is versus Louisiana where after 5 PM you got eaten alive.

[Austin97]

weirdly mosquitoes arent bad in my neighborhood, but I have friends that have extremely bad mosquitoes. this should be a bad time and we sat out in the front yard past dusk and I didnt get bitten (I usually get bitten a lot).

Dont have any experience out by the lake, but I would think the fish would keep the larvae population down. It is mostly standing stagnant water.

[Jimmyp25]

Depends where you live. If you close to water. There will be more. When I lived in Round Rock. The mosquitos by us were so horrible that you could not go outside for more than 5 minutes without a mosquito trying to bite you. They are very aggressive too. Lets say I would put bug spray all over my body, but missed a small area on back of my arm or elbow. The mosquito would bite me there and I would have multiple bites in the area where no bug sprayed was applied.

[coachtaylor]

It's bad where I am (Central/East Austin). I'm scratching as we speak (with new bites, in October). It's a bummer.

[riaelise]

Our friend lives in Central Austin and he can't step out of his house without repellent. There's lots of vegetation and standing water, so no surprise there.

We live in Round Rock, next to a nearby creek. Vegetation all around and areas of shade. You'll be eaten alive ringing the doorbell.

There are lots of mosquitoes here because it's warm most of the year, there's lots of standing water, and lots of mosquito friendly habitat.

I hate them too but it is what it is. I wear long sleeves, use fans, spray repellent. It's frustrating but again, it is what it is. I'd rather have the trees and vegetation than living on a barren cornfield again.

[G Grasshopper]

In SW Austin, we had mosquitoes, especially if you stood or worked in the grass. If you are taking a walk, any time really, and staying on sidewalks, you won't get bitten. But if you stand and talk with a neighbor, especially on the grass, you will get some bites. Not too bad if you sit up on a deck in the evening, but you will get a few. They are, however, nothing like the swarms I grew up with in Wisconsin.

[volenti12]

YMMV. I live in SW austin and the mosquitoes have been awful this year.

Mosquitoes love me and my son, but barely touch my husband. We've gotten so many mosquito bites that I lost count a long time ago. I'm fairly allergic to them and get large welts that last at least a week, with intense itching and redness.

I always wear bug spray when I go outside and still get bites. Several of the worst bites I've gotten this year were actually indoors, where I don't think to put on bug spray. The few mosquitoes that somehow got in would feast on my legs and go to town and one bad day I got 6 bites.

On the other hand, my husband has gotten a handful of mosquito bites, only puts on bug spray if we're going for walks in the park and the bites are tiny and disappear within a day.

The only times I can go outside without bug spray is in the winter, when it is cold and the mosquitoes have all died.