Increased risk of rising river water means an icreased risk of mosquito infestation, and the City of Laramie is trying to do something about it.

According to Mosquito Crew Supervisor for the City of Laramie Keith Wardlaw, the city has been spraying to prevent large scale mosquito outbreaks in this area for the past three months.

Wardlaw said the city spends 65 to 70 percent of their mosquito control resources on preventative measures. The goal is to prevent the mosquito larvae from reaching an adult stage.  

Wardlaw said it is difficult to predict the amount of mosquitos for the upcoming season because of the many variables involved. “A lot of factors go into mosquito production,” Wardlaw said. 

“I would predict it would be similar to last year. Runoff waters and weather have a large impact in the mosquito production,” he added.

Wardlaw said the cold weather has given his organization a bit of an advantage for preventative measures as a longer winter slows the larvae stage of the mosquito, allowing them more time to spray.

“Keith [Wardlaw] is doing the best he can with larvae control; that will help,” Scott Schell, a UW research scientist, said.

Schell added that he was worried about the floodwaters contributing to mosquito outbreaks. 

He said floodwater mosquitos are the most common of the three types of mosquitos in this area and one of the most difficult to combat. Floodwater mosquitos lay their eggs near the edge of water where the female expects water to rise. Once the rivers rises the eggs hatch, hence the name floodwater mosquito. 

Wardlaw said the increased river waters last year didn’t have a large impact on mosquito reproduction near the city as most of the waters sent the eggs downstream, which helped eliminate the mosquitos that layeggs in standing water sources. 

“Mosquitos don’t survive in moving water,” Wardlaw said. 

But the water may enhance mosquito reproduction in other ways–food supplies.

Although most people know mosquitos as pesky biters looking for blood, Schell explained that mosquitos live off of nectar. When flowers are blossoming because of all the extra water they receive they are a plentiful food source for the mosquitoes. Blood is just a supplement. 

In addition to mosquitos, Laramie is seeing a rise in another insect this summer–moths.

Schell said he has noticed a rise in moths lately and felt they were also benefiting from the increased water of this year and the previous one. He added that he was surprised at the density of the moths this year. 

Moths are migratory insects that move to the mountains in the spring and reverse migrate to the plains to lay eggs near the end of summer. Their life span is nearly a year long with adults living nearly five months, according to Schell.

Although moths sure are a pest, they generally don’t pose a health hazard. Schell said they leave a trail of dust that will annoy people, but it is harmless. If trapped indoors moths will generally die from dehydration without their primary source of food, nectar. 

Although adults do not present any major issues, the larvae can eat a vast amount.

Schell said he has seen prairie ravaged, killed by army worms, the hungry pupae stage of one of the moth varieties. 

But moths cannot be eradicated, as they are a vital food source to animals in the Rocky Mountain region. Schell said they make an excellent source of food for grizzly bears in the mountains since they are high in protein and nutritionally dense. 

Last year, the state sprayed for another pesky and financially costly insect, the grasshopper. They too may produce more this year because of extra forage. 

The state employs strategies to reduce the number of grasshoppers because of the vast amount of damage they do to crops in Wyoming. Schell explained the goal is to reduce the population to an “non-economic level,” meaning they will not be able to hurt large amounts of profit in the state. 

The state sprays a chemical to prevent young grasshoppers from maturing to the point of reproduction, Schell said. Last year, the state sprayed 5.9 million acres. 

While the current Laramie weather and flood plain will create an ideal breeding environment for insects throughout the state there are plenty of preventative measures taking place to reduce the risk of disease and financial strain. 

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