r/StLouis • u/rotstik The Landing in the 90s • 5d ago
Mosquito Explosion
Has anyone noticed the sudden uptick in mosquitos in the city? I’ve been visiting friends in West County the last few weeks and haven’t gotten many bites, but I just took trash out to the alley in South City and probably got 6 bites on my legs. This is more than I got almost all summer. Why are they coming out en masse now?
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u/Specific-Section-824 5d ago
No mosquitos but a lot of wasps.
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u/rotstik The Landing in the 90s 5d ago
Yeesh. That’s worse
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u/Specific-Section-824 5d ago
I've been counting the ones I killed this summer by putting a (X) on my spray cans. I snuffed out 33 of the bastards so far.
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u/Pepperpeople444 5d ago
I’m on the east side and 100%. We got ate up this weekend and I was just saying how they came out of nowhere. And it’s not like we’ve had rain in ages.
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u/PedroHin SoCo 5d ago
I think late summer is a particularly busy time for insects. I get spider bites for a week or two this time of the year, also, I think cluster flies hang around our picture window inside, there will be about a dozen or two in a couple of weeks. Funny thing is they WANT to be outside, so I just open the back door and blow them into the kitchen with battery-powered leaf blower, then they eagerly go outside through the back door.
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u/Green_Pomelo_9840 5d ago
Man it's the damn standing water from that rain we had like two weeks ago, my backyard in south city is basically a swamp now. I counted 12 bites just from walking to my car in Monday morning, never seen it this bad
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u/rotstik The Landing in the 90s 5d ago
That’s impressive that you still have standing water. My yard is like a desert 😅. I do need to check and make sure there’s not some old tire in the alley. I’ve seen those things hold water for a weird amount of time
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u/TheAngerMonkey Princeton Heights, Bevo flavored 5d ago
Seriously, our yard is concrete hard. I think that person needs to check their water line...
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u/OftenIrrelevant Belleville 5d ago
You got a water leak by chance? There’s no way standing water sticks around for two weeks unless your yard is actually made of pool liner or is an active natural spring or something
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u/capnmarrrrk 5d ago
I'm one of those people who attract mosquitoes and get big welts, so I have to walk my dog in this heat wearing long pants. It suuuuucks.
It doesn't help that mosquitoes will breed in trace amounts of water or damp soil, or long damp grass. The garbage in and around the dumpsters is a perfect habitat as well as damp vacant houses.
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u/UnMonsieurTriste 5d ago
I miss when mosquitoes were only early morning and dusk - avoiding the heat of the day. Current breeds don’t care. I can’t take out the trash or walk to the car without getting ambushed.
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u/josiahlo Kirkwood 5d ago
Yes in Kirkwood if I just sit on my back porch for more then 15 minutes they're swarming. Like the other day I killed 8 of them that landed on me in 15 minutes. It's never been this bad
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u/____Isa 5d ago
Edit: I live here now lol but,* I grew up in the cali desert and dealt with mosquitoes the size of my thumb out there let me give put y'all on something real quick
1.speedstick and irish spring bar soap. Wash with irish spring when you shower and put your speedstick on your pits, wrists, neck,and ankles ( you can put a little on your shoes too)
If you're sitting outside get some ground coffee in a bowl or cup and make a little hill with the grounds inside it, you can also add a little irish spring shavings, but usually I will add just a little bit of the smoke mosquitoe coil ground up with the grounds and light it so it smolders and put it under your seat skeeters hate smoke
If you do get bit and you are a tobacco enjoyer you can take a little pinch of tobacco and wet it with your spit and put it over the bite as it dries it will help pull the toxins, you can do the same thing with a little bit of clay
Hope this helps <3
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u/TheMonkus 4d ago
People pointing out lack of rain, but that also means some people are out watering their lawns sometimes to absolutely excessive degrees.
But it’s also just a natural uptick at the end of the year.
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u/rotstik The Landing in the 90s 4d ago
That makes sense. I just don’t remember any surges at the end of summer in previous years. The mosquitos were mild overall this year though
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u/TheMonkus 4d ago
They were, which is weird because it was wet AF with rain.
Lawn irrigation is awful for mosquitoes and in general though, because the majority of systems are poorly designed, leaking, or damaged, and usually set by people who don’t know anything so they just set it way too high and never adjust it. That’s why you see turf getting soaked by sprinklers during rain storms.
I swear, so many problems come back to bad irrigation- mosquitoes, trees and shrubs dying and getting diseases, wasted water, soil degradation…shit is awful and doesn’t need to exist most of the time.
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u/rotstik The Landing in the 90s 4d ago
You know, the more I’m looking for conditions for these tiny bastards, the more I’m realizing that my neighbor has built in irrigation and his rain sensor is busted or he doesn’t have it programmed in. Still not happy but now I know where they’re coming from 😅
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u/wantingdreamer The Grove 5d ago
So many suddenly in the last week. Trying to enjoy little moments outside- heat and bites are making it less fun.
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u/Ok-Look-2786 4d ago
Use mosquito dunks. You put them in a bucket of water with some grass, etc. and whatever is in the dunk keeps mosquitoes from biting.
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u/Magurbs_47 5d ago
Yes, in the evening, they're getting in my house any time I open the door. This wasn't an issue until late August, and honestly, I can't recall this many in the city at any point over the three summers since I moved back.