Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 20, 1994 TAG: 9405200062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CANTON, MASS. LENGTH: Medium
``They're out there,'' he says.
Buckley, a state laboratory field supervisor, is referring to bloodsucking mosquitoes breeding copiously in pools of stagnant water created by melting snow from the severe winter and heavy spring rains.
Because of all the moisture, the mosquito onslaught has become fact, not science fiction, elsewhere on the East Coast and in the Midwest. Some parts already have had a fivefold population explosion.
In the Northeast, health officials also are bracing for legions of ticks to emerge from the shelter of the winter's snow covering.
``I'd get your repellent ready,'' said Theodore Andreadis, an entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.
In many places, the relentless buzzing and the creepy crawling have begun:
The Midwest, where officials are concerned because the weather patterns closely mirror those of 1973, the start of a three-year mosquito infestation - and an accompanying rise in cases of potentially fatal encephalitis.
The Southwest, where tick season started early this year, according to Whitney Cranshaw, an entomologist at Colorado State University.
The Northeast, where the mosquito forecast is at its highest level in years and woodland sections are expected to be inundated.
The mid-Atlantic states, where entomologists predict up to five times as many mosquitoes as usual because of a wet March and a warm April.
``I've never seen them this early or this bad before,'' said Keith Phillips, a landscaper in Lewes, Del., where the mosquitoes already are attacking. ``And they're very hungry.''
Flooded conditions in wetlands and along rivers are providing plentiful pools of water for mosquito larvae to hatch. In the Southeast, the Tennessee Valley Authority has started raising and lowering the water levels along 650 miles of the Tennessee River to control mosquito breeding.
The Arkansas Delta town of McCrory, population 2,000, uses the mosquitos as a tourist attraction. This year's version of the annual Mosquito Festival will include a one-mile mosquito swatting dash.
``They've been a real pest,'' festival spokeswoman Betty Thompson said. ``We decided to turn it into something fun.''
by CNB