From Medicine Net
May 12, 2020
Huge, invasive “murder hornets” may be scary, but so are the typical native species of hornets, bees, mosquitoes, and ticks that cause disease and death in the US every year.
A warm, wet winter means all those pest populations are spiking early this spring and will likely thrive through the summer.
The National Pest Management Association publishes a “Bug Barometer” report every year in its Pestworld trade journal to give members an idea of what to expect in the coming season.
“(Winter weather) conditions allowed vector pests such as ticks, responsible for the spread of Lyme disease, and mosquitoes, common vectors of West Nile virus, Zika virus and Eastern equine encephalitis to get a jumpstart on activity,” said Jim Fredericks, Ph.D., chief entomologist for the NPMA, in a release. “With more warm and wet weather predicted for summer across most of the US, we’ll likely see these populations, and others, rapidly expand.”