As Marylanders slosh through their third straight month of rainy weather, the state's mosquito control chief says we have more to worry about than gloomy skies and spoiled picnics.
Mosquito populations have exploded, and they're looking for blood.
"This could very well be the worst year we have had in a couple of decades if this rainfall pattern keeps up," said Mike Cantwell, chief of the Maryland Department of Agriculture's mosquito control division.
His crews measure mosquito populations by counting how many land on their arms in a minute. On the lower Eastern Shore, 12 per minute is enough to call for aerial spraying.
"We've had counts ... of over 90 a minute at some sites in southern Dorchester County. The average is about 54 landings per minute," Cantwell said. "Somerset and Wicomico counties have landing rates on average of 30 to 40 a minute."
Mosquito counts are also high and rising across Central Maryland. Counts of three to five landings per minute are common in Baltimore County, with five to 10 a minute along the Back, Middle and Gunpowder rivers.
Those are mostly salt marsh and culex species, which breed early in the season.
In urban areas, Asian tiger mosquitoes - persistent daytime biters - are busy breeding in clogged gutters and backyard containers. "At some point, I would expect we will ultimately be above normal levels for tigers this year, too," Cantwell said.
So far, no mosquitoes have tested positive for diseases such as West Nile fever or encephalitis. But the first positive "pools" generally don't turn up until July, he said.
Last year, four batches from the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center tested positive for the deadly eastern equine encephalitis.
About 2,100 Maryland neighborhoods are participating in the state's voluntary mosquito aerial and ground spraying programs, and the money is going fast.
"At this pace, we will expend our budget probably in midseason," Cantwell said. "We'll have to slow down or we'll have to request [more] funding." But given the state of the economy, he's not hopeful of getting an emergency appropriation.
Meteorologists blame a pattern of cold fronts that have stalled across the region since April. The fronts have funneled showers and thunderstorms across the mid-Atlantic states, and there are few signs that the pattern is changing.
