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Mosquito population exploding with warm wet weather

Next week, the city will be abuzz with the cookouts, fireworks and mosquitoes - swarms of them.

INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - Next week, the city will be abuzz with the cookouts, fireworks and mosquitoes - swarms of them.

The hotter weather and rain puddles have the mosquito population ready to explode.

Puddles are teeming with mosquitoes, health department workers are itching to kill them and people are biting mad.

At Holiday Park, every one of the picnickers we talked with wished they remembered to bring mosquito repellent with them. Julia Lukas swatted away at them as she talked.

"They just swarm and they just get you all over and love every inch of you," she said.

One of the nasty creatures took a bite out of little Da'Juan Griffin.

"I'm not scratching it. I am rubbing it," the child insisted.

On the other side of the city, Terry Gallagher mucked through a large puddle of standing water, hidden by trees and bushes.

"This is chuck full of larva," he said.

The standing water bubbled with the soon to be mosquitoes. Armed with a spray can of mineral oil, Gallagher tried to kill as many as he could.

The Marion County Department of Public Health has 32 mosquito control technicians working day and night waging what appears to be a losing battle.

Can Marion County really control mosquitoes?

"We can do our best," said Matt Sinsko, who coordinated the program,

According to Sinsko, the mosquito season started out good for us. Frequent, torrential rain storms washed away larva. Cool temperatures kept the mosquito population down. But now 90-degree weather is turning stagnant pools of water into ideal breeding grounds.

"I would say a week from now we will see a lot more mosquitoes than we are seeing right now and we are already seeing a lot," Sinsko said.

The news gives parents like Sarah Besser, something else to worry about.

"West Nile is always a threat," she said. "The West Nile virus. We are hopeful we can stay away from any mosquito-borne disease."

The health department traps and every day tests mosquitoes for the virus.

"So that way, if last night we found mosquitoes with West Nile virus, we can be out tonight treating the area, hoping to push down that virus level," Sinsko explained,

Residents can bite back. They can call the health department at 317-221-7440 or go online so workers can spray or fog the area.

Homeowners can also help themselves. Keep bird baths full of fresh water, clean the gutters, turn unused trash cans upside down.

The fewer places mosquitoes have to breed, the fewer mosquitoes you will have to swat away.

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