Hitting Mosquitoes Where It Hurts
In Maryland and the rest of the U.S., mosquito season begins with a new species, a new disease, and new strategies for pest control.
Early in the morning of June 4, two twin-engine Beechcrafts lifted into the air on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
"These marshes in the Fishing Bay area are very productive," said Michael Cantwell, chief of mosquito control for Maryland's Department of Agriculture.
Fishing Bay is a small bay to the south and east of the Chesapeake. This year it produced what the department's chief entomologist was calling "a monster brood," with as many as a hundred larvae in a pint of water.
Once the floodwater recedes, larvae are left in isolated depressions that retain enough water to allow them to transform into adult mosquitoes over 7 to 14 days—depending on the temperature—and swarm out of the marshes looking for a blood meal.
