WORCESTER, Mass. — It is summertime and the mosquitos are biting, how bad it is depends on where you live.
On Thursday, state health officials also announced the first case of West Nile Virus found in a mosquito sample in the state. The sample was taken in Worcester.
In Worcester and Plymouth counties, mosquito activity is up compared to last year, but Middlesex, Suffolk and Norfolk Counties are seeing lower mosquito activity.
Mosquitoes happen in summer in New England, no matter what the weather is, but dry conditions generally mean fewer mosquitoes.
So it was a surprise to see the number of mosquitoes in the Worcester area way up over this same week last year.
The total number of mosquitoes trapped this past week was more than 3,000 percent higher than this week last year, the Central Massachusetts Mosquito Control Project reports.
Two species in particular rose dramatically.
One of them is known to hatch right around July 4. These are the mosquitoes that breed in natural wetlands, especially those with cattails, and even in areas of the state not seeing a dramatic rise in overall mosquito numbers this one species is up.
“It depends on the species. But you have, typically rainfall usually goes from west to east. So you have the heaviest rainfall in western Massachusetts. So they're more likely to have floodwater species,” David Henley, superintendent of the Eastern Middlesex Mosquito Control Project, said.
By floodwater species Henley is talking about mosquitoes that breed in stagnant pools, old tires, and similar standing water.
The biggest fear with mosquitoes is not so much that they bite, but that in doing so, they transmit disease.