Heading outdoors? How to protect yourself from mosquitoes, ticks.
Hordes of people venturing outdoors during the recent hot spell have been met with swarms of mosquitoes and legions of ticks waiting to drink their blood. The biting pests are back in full attack mode, and in big numbers.
“They just about carried me out,” Rob Wessberg said of the cloud of mosquitoes that descended on him over the weekend at the Pike Lake Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest in Washington County.
The mosquitoes caught up to him as soon as he stopped walking on a forest trail to answer a visitor’s question, Wessberg said. He is the Pike Lake property supervisor.
Mostly floodwater species of mosquitoes — those bloodsuckers laying eggs in heavy woods, low-lying areas or wherever they find a pool of water, such as a tire or bird bath — were out in force for the first time over the holiday weekend, said Patrick Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison insect diagnostics lab.
Late May generally ushers in “the first big batch” of mosquitoes as spring precipitation and warmer temperatures prompt the hatching of eggs and the rise of the buzzing pests, Liesch said.
“When the rains come, it lights the fuse,” he said.
What can you do?
1. Keep those bugs at bay
A universal precaution is to wear repellent.
2. Choose your colors wisely
For people walking through high grass, brush or wooded areas, it is recommended to wear light-colored clothes to better observe ticks.
3. Avoid T-shirts and shorts
Long-sleeved shirts and long pants are advised, along with tucking pants into socks to prevent ticks from getting on skin.
4. Button up
Open collars of shirts allow ticks to access skin if one of the bloodsuckers falls off a tree branch or shrub as you brush against it.
5. Check and double-check for ticks
For people gardening in tall plants or walking in the woods, Liesch recommends at least one tick check of your body each day, and more frequent if you make repeated forays into the wild.
“It never hurts to do a tick check,” he said.
6. Get prepared
For more information on preventing tick bites and tick-borne diseases, check advice from Liesch in “The ABCs of tick season in Wisconsin” at www.wiscontext.org.
7. Remove that tick safely
“If a tick is found biting a person or pet, the best removal method is to use tweezers to grab near the tick’s mouth parts and use a slow steady pull to remove it,” Liesch said. State health officials recommend disinfecting the bite site with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub, or soap and water.
The first big hatch of mosquitoes has arrived based on reports that Liesch received in the past 10 days from southwestern and southeastern counties. Complaints of mosquitoes are coming from central Wisconsin, but there have been fewer reports farther north where there has been less rainfall, he said.
His mosquito forecast: If the weather remains wet with frequent rain, big numbers of the pests will be with us all summer.
May and June usually are the peak of tick season in the state, Liesch said.
“Mosquitoes and ticks can spread many illnesses, like Lyme disease and West Nile Virus, that can make you and your family sick,” state health officials said in “Enjoy the outdoors — bug-free!,” an online resource.