Mosquitoes – REALLY bad right now in my area

The Mosquitoes in my area are horribly bad right now. Probably the worst I’ve ever seen them. It doesn’t seem to matter what time of the day or type of weather ( Even hot, clear, windy days ) they seem to be endless. We have several wetland near my house and I’m not sure if the city does anything to treat them or not. Where I use to live in Prior lake, they use to fly around in a small helicopter and drop some type of pucks into each small wetlands in the area. I was on Dog duty this last weekend for my neighbor and even in the short mowed grass in the yard at mid day I got ate alive. They have been really bad at the golf course lately as well and I know they treat for them a lot out there. I hate using spray ( I hate the feeling on my skin ) Between all the bites I receive in Canada ( a month ago ) and all the bites I’m getting around home, I just cant stop scratching. I may have to break down and buy a quality sprayer and spray around my home. It’s to the point where I dread even going out and cutting the grass. Do others seem to be having greater than normal problems with them right now ???

Yup really bad year all over. We usually don’t have them at the cabin, but they’ve been bad. Our house is terrible too, and Rainy Lake is always bad but one of the worst years we’ve seen this weekend.

they were really bad up here in Duluth this spring until the dragonflies hatched, then they seemed to drop a few notches on the nastiness scale, but still worse than a normal year right now

There’s almost none where I live because we haven’t had a good rain since Memorial Day. Dry weather = no bugs.

The St Cloud area is about a foot of rain ahead of the Twin Cities right now. All that standing water is a breeding ground for bugs.

We dont have them hardly at all at our cabin. NW Sconny. I was up there all last week and they were hardly noticeable. Got a few tick bites though. They cozied up with me a couple nights. Benefits of the dogs sleeping next to our bed no doubt.

PS-other reports may differ in my area. Mosquitoes rarely bother me much and when they do I have no reaction to their bites outside of the initial discomfort so maybe they are worse than I mention?

Buy a fogger and use Black Flag fogger spray. Spray several times and then use Off Mosquito coils where you want to sit outside. If you golf you get what you get unless you want to hump the fogger with you.

Around Brainerd, or just particularly at my house… They are awful. During the day, not so bad. But around 6pm, they come out and it’s not like a couple. It’s enough to the point where you have to go inside or get eaten alive. I have so many mosquito bites on my legs, I think I’m just about immune to them!

I swear by this homemade concoction. It won’t get rid of them all but really helps. Even at the cabin in Itasca county!
1 gallon water
1 bottle of cheap mint mouthwash, think dollar tree cheap!!
1 tablespoon Epsom salt.

Mix in a hand pump sprayer and spray all over the yard!

gim wrote:

There’s almost none where I live because we haven’t had a good rain since Memorial Day.

I’m no biologist but water since Memorial Day isn’t a huge factor I don’t think, they hatch in the spring and high water then makes the difference in how big the hatch is I believe. They probably just sprayed well by your house, or there’s not a lot of water nearby relative to other areas. I’ve been swarmed in Carver, St. Louis Park and Maple Grove this year.

in the Aitkin, MN area they were unbarable a couple of months ago, but they seemed to disappear for awhile and now they’re back…likely coincides with the rains…

Bad at the Cabin over the last week but only at the Witching Hour around dusk and a couple of Thermacells seemed to keep them at bay.

BigWerm wrote:

I’m no biologist but water since Memorial Day isn’t a huge factor I don’t think, they hatch in the spring and high water then makes the difference in how big the hatch is I believe. They probably just sprayed well by your house, or there’s not a lot of water nearby relative to other areas. I’ve been swarmed in Carver, St. Louis Park and Maple Grove this year.

The lifespan of an adult mosquito is about 2-3 weeks in length. They reproduce in stagnant pools of standing water. So yes, rain definitely makes a big difference. There hasn’t been any significant rain here in over a month, therefore there are far less places for them to breed.

I worked for the MMCD (Metro Mosquito Control District) one summer many years ago. Rainfall played the biggest role in determining how big the hatch was. We focused our spraying efforts on areas with more rain.

The OP is from Cold Spring, which is near St Cloud. That area is about 7 inches in surplus of rain this spring, whereas the Twin cites is about 5 inches in deficit. That alone provides the answer to the mosquito riddle right now.

We have very few mosquitos at my house but we do have some deer flies. SW metro. 5 miles away at my dads the deer flies are ruthless cant even stand to get out of the truck some days.

gim wrote:

The lifespan of an adult mosquito is about 2-3 weeks in length. They reproduce in stagnant pools of standing water. So yes, rain definitely makes a big difference. There hasn’t been any significant rain here in over a month, therefore there are far less places for them to breed.

I worked for the MMCD (Metro Mosquito Control District) one summer many years ago. Rainfall played the biggest role in determining how big the hatch was. We focused our spraying efforts on areas with more rain.

The OP is from Cold Spring, which is near St Cloud. That area is about 7 inches in surplus of rain this spring, whereas the Twin cites is about 5 inches in deficit. That alone provides the answer to the mosquito riddle right now.

great info. thanks for sharing

We spent some time near Aitkin in June. The mosquitoes were worse than I had ever seen them in 35 years up there. Even if you ran out into the middle of the lake, they’d find you. It was maddening. I was thinking about driving up there on the morning of the first solid freeze so I could watch all the %#^%^$^%&*’s die.

I was dosing my self with 98.5 % Deet in an attempt top keep the little monsters at bay. I ended up getting sick, heatburn/nausea type symptoms. That’s when the resort owner suggested I stay away from Deet and try something else. A company called “Murphy’s Naturals” has a repellant made from natural products like lemon and eucalyptus and some other stuff. It smells better than Deet, it doesn’t make me sick, and it repels bugs. Since it’s an oil it hangs in there for a long time too.

It was tough to admit this works, my daughter Sharon is a big fan of essential oils and I’ve given her considerable grief about her “magic voodoo oil” but this stuff works.

SR

gim wrote:

The OP is from Cold Spring, which is near St Cloud. That area is about 7 inches in surplus of rain this spring, whereas the Twin cites is about 5 inches in deficit. That alone provides the answer to the mosquito riddle right now.

I’m from the Sartell / St. cloud area but its close enough to Cold Spring. We have had a fair amount of rain this year. And to make matters worse its been spaced about perfect to the life cycle of Mosquitoes. About the time one batch is ready to die off we get a another good rain and a new batch is born. The cycle just keeps happening. More Mosquitoes means more of them to breed and a even larger batch the next hatch. We have had other similar wet years and they just didn’t seem to be as bad. May be more about the timing of the rain vs the amount of it. Its one of the things about Minnesota I could live without. The other strange thing is I use to be one of those people that just didn’t get bite as much as some people and didn’t react as bad to the bite. Something must have changed because they seem to love me these days and the reaction I get to them seems much worse.

They were better this weekend along the Aitkin/Carlton Co line. It was pretty fierce in June. I did however notice the deer flies were out.

The Cass/Crow Wing county line area was relatively free of mosquitoes.

Steve Root wrote:

A company called “Murphy’s Naturals” has a repellant made from natural products like lemon and eucalyptus and some other stuff. It smells better than Deet, it doesn’t make me sick, and it repels bugs. Since it’s an oil it hangs in there for a long time too.

It was tough to admit this works, my daughter Sharon is a big fan of essential oils and I’ve given her considerable grief about her “magic voodoo oil” but this stuff works.

SR

Steve Root wrote:

A company called “Murphy’s Naturals” has a repellant made from natural products like lemon and eucalyptus and some other stuff. It smells better than Deet, it doesn’t make me sick, and it repels bugs. Since it’s an oil it hangs in there for a long time too.

It was tough to admit this works, my daughter Sharon is a big fan of essential oils and I’ve given her considerable grief about her “magic voodoo oil” but this stuff works.

SR

Is this it???

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Get a 1 or 2 gallon hand pump sprayer and bottle of this stuff from Menards. Follow the easy directions and they will be gone. Spray in the evening and they will be gone by morning. Worked fantastic at my farm up north. Might have $50 total into this.

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Unusually terrible all year at my cabin, in Embarrass, which is always bad because it’s mostly swamp. Long sleeves, headnets, and gloves at all times for doing any outdoor work. The last two weekends have really been the first time that a Thermacell can keep the deck at a reasonable level. Flies are out in force now and those bug me more.

Hey Thumper! Yea that’s the stuff.

I swear your profile said Cold Spring at one point thumper. Same area though. It’s unreal how green everything is up there.

gim wrote:

I swear your profile said Cold Spring at one point thumper. Same area though. It’s unreal how green everything is up there.

Yea cold spring ain’t big enough for the 2 of us!!!🤣 he had to move!!;

North branch area has been terrible. We had a fire and while standing in the smoke you would still be getting eaten alive. Now the flies are moving in and they are becoming terrible in the garage. I had to get fly traps to help fight them off.

I’d say they’re significantly less than normal here on the banks of Pool 4. Our rainfall has been average, but the big variable to keeping them away has been the wind. The mosquitoes are likely around, but when 4/5 days has 15+ mph winds all spring and early summer they’re rarely out in the open fighting that.

I made a trip to the UP last week of June. The skeets were tolerable during the day, leaving us alone when we were out on the water. Deer flies were attacking as usual. Black flies were almost over, only saw a few.

Mike W wrote:

Get a 1 or 2 gallon hand pump sprayer and bottle of this stuff from Menards. Follow the easy directions and they will be gone. Spray in the evening and they will be gone by morning. Worked fantastic at my farm up north. Might have $50 total into this.

Bifen works amazing on skeeters and just about everything else. I spray it once a month to keep down skeeters, ticks, spiders, and Asian beetles. You can also buy it online. The brand I’ve had great luck with is telestar if I remember correctly.

glenn57 wrote:

Yea cold spring ain’t big enough for the 2 of us!!

Haha. Cold Spring isn’t big enough for TWO sheriffs is it.