What to know for mosquito season

This year’s mild winter and warm weather has been nice. But it could mean a big mosquito season’s ahead.

Here’s what you should know about mosquitoes, illnesses and how to protect yourself and your pets from bites.

Mosquito control became a big business this year

Several landscaping companies around the Wichita area are offering the service for the first time this summer.

Phillip Fisher, Wichita branch manager of Ryan Lawn & Tree, said his company will offer mosquito control in Wichita for the first time this year.

Each year, he said, his company tests mosquito control products on the market, but found they didn’t work well.

“And who wants to spend that kind of money to last four or five days unless it’s a wedding or party?” he said. The cost varies depending on a property’s size, but treatment for an average residence costs around $90.

He said for the first time, the company found a formula that lasted longer than a month when it was tested in Overland Park last year.

“We expect it’s just going to explode,” Fisher said. “We’ve been asked about it for years, and we were not able to offer anything we were comfortable with that provided a good result.”

The service involves spraying bushes, weeds and vegetation to leave a residue of insecticide behind.

Joe Conlon, technical adviser for the American Mosquito Control Association, said a downside of the spray is that it kills other bugs, too, such as ladybugs.

Mosquito facts

▪ Mosquitoes breed when temperatures are consistently over 50 degrees.

▪ Only female mosquitoes bite.

▪ Female mosquitoes only bite when they need to lay eggs.

▪ At other times, mosquitoes just feed on plant juices and have a small role in pollination.

▪ The largest species of mosquitoes doesn’t bite at all.

▪ The itchy bumps from mosquito bites are allergic reactions to the insect’s saliva.

▪ A full moon increased mosquito activity 500 percent in one study, according to the American Mosquito Control Association.

▪ Mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide and lactic acid.

▪ Bigger people are often more attractive to mosquitoes because they tend to produce more CO2 and lactic acid.

▪ Some mosquitoes only travel up to 100 yards. Other species can fly up to two to five miles.

Source: American Mosquito Control Association

Yes, it’s true, mosquitoes can ‘like you’

Conlon, of the American Mosquito Control Association, said each person’s body puts off 300 compounds in different combinations.

Some of those compounds are more attractive to mosquitoes than others. People with more compounds attractive to mosquitoes tend to get more mosquito bites.

“The combinations of those (compounds) are how your dog knows who you are,” he said. “Mosquitoes are honed in on that also.”

He said the compound combinations depend on a person’s metabolism, the way someone metabolizes food and the way bacteria on their skin metabolizes oily secretions.

And it’s genetic.

“There are people that are genetically less attractive to mosquitoes,” Conlon said.

Treating mosquito bites

Anti-itch lotion, like calamine lotion, will help with mosquito bites. That’s the main symptom to treat.

Some people just innately react more violently to bites than others. If a person is bitten by a mosquito that carries West Nile, the bite is not going to look or feel different than other bites, so a bite reaction is not an indication of disease.

What to do on your property

Mosquitoes breed in water, and it doesn’t take much. Even something as small as a bottle top can host a breeding site.

The less mosquitoes breed, the less mosquitoes bite.

“Doing what you can on your property, as a citizen, is really important,” said Ingrid Garrison, state public health veterinarian for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

To prevent breeding:

▪ Replace water in pet dishes and bird baths every three days

▪ Dump water from plant saucers every three days

▪ Clear roof gutters of debris

▪ Drill holes in the bottom of recycling containers

▪ Dump water from children’s play toys

▪ Make sure tarps are pulled tight, so as not to collect water

▪ Repair leaky outdoor faucets

▪ Dump water from old tires

▪ Plug tree holes

▪ Keep shrubs, trees and grass well trimmed and remove weeds. (This helps remove shady, wet areas.)

To prevent biting:

▪ Use bug lights on patios. The lights emit a yellow light that doesn’t repel mosquitoes, but doesn’t attract them either.

▪ Use floor fans on patios to provide a stiff breeze. Mosquitoes have a difficult time flying through and against wind. The fan also dissipates odors that attract mosquitoes.

▪ Make sure home windows are screened, doors properly sealed and vents are properly shut to keep mosquitoes from getting inside.

▪ Screens can be repaired with silicone caulk or screen patches and doors with weather stripping.

Source: American Mosquito Control Association

What the state does

The hotter and wetter the season, the more mosquitoes breed. Garrison, from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said she expects mosquito season to start sooner this year because of the warm weather.

Christopher Rogers, research associate for the Kansas Biological Survey at the University of Kansas, said he and other bug workers trap mosquitoes, identify the species type and track the diseases they carry.

Mosquito monitoring typically starts in May. The state focuses its resources in Sedgwick County, where it places nine traps around the area.

The traps emit carbon dioxide and have a light attached to attract the type of biting mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus.

One in five people who get West Nile will have a fever and some other symptoms, but will get better, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Less than 1 percent of people become seriously ill and die.

The monitoring started in 2001specifically to track West Nile. The state’s first reported case of the virus appeared in 2002, according to Garrison, of the state health department.

The species of mosquitoes that carry West Nile — called Culex mosquitoes — are the most common type of mosquitoes caught in Sedgwick County’s traps.

But that could be because the traps are designed specifically to catch the kind of mosquitoes that carry West Nile.

The second most-common type of mosquitoes caught in the county’s traps are the species that can carry Zika virus. But Zika is not yet a threat in Kansas and the state doesn’t plan to test for it.

The traps catch other species, too, but those are mostly nuisance mosquitoes, some of which don’t bite at all.

Other than West Nile, the Sedgwick County Health Department said it receives reports of chikungunya fever, dengue fever and malaria, but all of those are travel related and weren’t contracted in Kansas.

“We’re at a very low risk for ever having local transmission of Zika, dengue, chikungunya fever and yellow fever,” Garrison said. “But the risk is real for West Nile virus and people need to drain, dress and Deet.”

Bug spray ingredients

Repellents do not kill mosquitoes and other insects, but they will help deter them from biting people.

Deet has been the gold standard for repellants for more than 50 years, according to the American Mosquito Control Association.

Conlon said people should choose repellant products approved by the EPA, including natural products. He said people sometimes have a false sense of security in the safety of products branded as being all natural.

For example, oil of clove, he said, can repel mosquitoes when used in high concentrations, but would also burn through a person’s skin at that level.

“People have got to watch it when they see an advertisement that says it’s natural,” he said.

An effective, natural alternative to Deet is oil of lemon-eucalyptus with 40 percent concentration, he said.

Conlon said it’s not quite as effective as Deet in scientific comparisons, but works well enough that users likely wouldn’t notice the difference.

Picaridin, a synthetic derivative of pepper plants, is another Deet alternative, but that’s not entirely natural. Conlon said it’s been found to be almost as effective as Deet.

Here’s a list of ingredients the American Mosquito Control Association says consumers should seek in mosquito repellant:

▪ diethyl phthalate

▪ diethyl carbate

▪ N, N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (Deet)

▪ metofluthrin

▪ picaridin

▪ ethyl hexanediol

▪ oil of lemon-eucalyptus

What to know if you’re pregnant

Deet, picaridin and oil of lemon-eucalyptus are all approved by the EPA for pregnant women to use.

Conlon said some pregnant women will shy away from using chemical repellant because of fear the chemicals could harm their baby.

He said the risk posed by mosquito-borne illnesses is greater.

“Your risk is far greater in not utilizing these things than in utilizing these things,” he said.

Risk for West Nile virus, he said is often underestimated.

“People should not be lulled into complacency by the fact that the majority of cases are the very young, or the very old,” he said. “They’re horrible diseases, and they’re entirely preventable by utilizing things like repellants.”

Mosquito bites and pets

Susan Nelson, a primary care veterinarian for the Pet Health Center at Kansas State University, said heartworm is the main concern for mosquito-borne pet illnesses in Kansas.

Wichita averages 26 to 50 heartworm cases per year per pet clinic.

Most of Kansas averages below 25 cases per clinic.

Nelson says prevention is key.

“You’re way better off preventing them from getting it than having to treat them,” Nelson said, referring to cost and suffering.

She said heartworm in dogs is more treatable than heartworm in cats. She said cats often die from heartworm and removing the worm — which can grow 12 to 18 inches long — is risky.

She also said indoor cats are just as likely to contract heartworm as outdoor cats.

“Mosquitoes come in the house,” she said. “It only takes one mosquito to infect the animal.”

The most important mosquito measure for dogs and cats, she said, is heartworm prevention from veterinarian prescriptions.

She said people should not use dog products on cats, because the chemicals can kill cats.

And don’t use human bug spray on pets — especially Deet.

Nelson said pet stores sell some mosquito-repellant collars, but to talk with a veterinarian about safe options for repellant.

Dogs can sometimes catch West Nile virus, but Nelson said it’s rare.

However, it is a problem among horses and can be prevented through a vaccine.

Dogs and cats don’t have a West Nile vaccine, but it’s rare for them to catch it.

This story was originally published April 9, 2016 at 7:14 AM with the headline "What to know for mosquito season."