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Certain areas along coastal NC have had rain almost daily for several weeks. I know at my house in Cart. Co. it has rained almost daily for 3 weeks. The rain has been isolated, tends to be heavy but moves off quickly.
But with heavy rains comes bugs. Fortunately there hasn't been a fire ant outbreak but there sure has been a mosquitoe outbreak. With the recent national news coverage about West Nile Virus at an all time high here in the US I thought the following 2 articles might be appropriate.
Interesting facts from the articles:
- A female mosquito can lay up to 300 eggs in a table spoon of water.
- Mosquitoes tend to be more attracted to Blondes then brunettes.
- A female mosquito has 47 teeth.
Last edited by SunnyKayak; 09-03-2012 at 11:12 AM..
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Yeah, but have you ever seen those 300 larvae try to swim around in that tablespoon???
From what I've seen over the years a gallon of water generally supports maybe one or two dozen larvae. There are of course, over achievers, but generally not so much.
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Also of interest when it comes to mosquitoes is the common dragonfly. Dragonflies love mosquitoes and can consume several hundred a day. Here in my part of Eastern Carolina we have had a bumper crop of dragonflies this year. We also don't seem to have much of a mosquito problem like we did last year after Irene went through.
Yes, Bats are your friend. Bats will do the most damage against mosquitoes more than anything we can think of. Try placing a few "Bat houses" 15' up in the air and facing South to try to entice them to roost there.
Once you have a small colony of bats, your insect problems disappear !
With all the rian I have had at my house 23 inches since early July, I am surprised that I have not seen too many mosquitoes nor fire ants. I have seen lots of dragon flies though thankfully. they may be keeping the population of mosquitoes down.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trlhiker
With all the rian I have had at my house 23 inches since early July, I am surprised that I have not seen too many mosquitoes nor fire ants.
Apparently, the decapitating phorid fly (DPF) has been successfully established in Eastern Carolina. The DPF is a mortal enemy of the fire ant. A single DPF can keep the inhabitants of a fire ant colony so frightened to come out of their mound that the mound literally starves to death. The DPF is a natural enemy of the Argentinian Fire Ant in their native Argentina. The DPF was brought to the US in the 1990s and 2000s just to combat the fire ants.
These flies will NOT eliminate fire ants. They will lead to suppression of the number of fire ant colonies.
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