CHESTERFIELD, Mo. – Recent rains and heavy downpours left standing water all over the St. Louis region. And that brings the return of mosquitoes.
“The warm weather is starting to come around and warm up for springtime,” said Ryan Kelley, operations manager for Rottler Pest and Lawn Solutions. “The combination of that and standing water and sunshine that really makes the mosquitoes breed pretty quickly. You’ll notice that when you’re outside in the evening trying to enjoy your time outside.”
Kelley is treating a Chesterfield home on a warm Wednesday afternoon, looking for low spots, standing water, and places mosquitoes might hide, like around a clogged gutter or the undersides of a gutter.
“It is known that some things attract mosquitoes more than others, however if mosquitoes are in the area, they’re going to find you no matter what,” Kelley said. “Male mosquitoes do feed on plant nectar, but they don’t bite humans. The females are the ones that bite humans, but they don’t feed on plant nectar as much. However, there is still going to be attracted to some of those scents.”
With the chance for some humid days over the next few days, the crews at Rottler will be out trying to rid residences of those itchy flying bandits that can spread the West Nile virus.
“This past winter was very mild, so it probably didn’t kill off as many adult mosquitoes as usually happens during the wintertime,” Kelley said. “So we have more of a population to deal with in springtime than we normally do.”
That’s great news for a pest control company, but not so great news if you’re a human being.
