DES MOINES, Iowa — This summer Central Iowa has seen a lot of flooding and record rainfall, which means there has been a lot of standing water all across the area. 

People have complained of more mosquitos and more mosquito bites, but it is actually worse this year? 

“As best as we can tell from the traps that we have with our ongoing partners, I would say that this year, maybe a little bit above average for the total number of mosquitoes,” Ryan Smith with Iowa State Mosquito Surveillance Program said.

And what about all the extra water this summer? 

“In Central Iowa, we are really affected by this kind of the floodwater. They use this stagnant water to lay their eggs. And we haven’t necessarily seen massive numbers as a result of the recent rain, which is a little surprising,” he said. “But we have seen, I guess you could say, a little bit higher mosquito activity. And so what I would say is, at least compared to the last few years, we’ve seen probably greater activity stretching into parts of August than what we have seen in the past, particularly of these nuisance mosquitoes that are going to bite humans, but not necessarily are a concern for disease transmission.”

West Nile Virus is the biggest concern. They have seen activity of it in Polk County.

“At least right now it’s at some of the highest levels that we’ve seen in the last 20 years. And so I think that there is some significant risks for us moving through the rest of the summer for potential West Nile Virus transmission,” Smith said.

He suggests some preventative measures, like dumping out or getting rid of stagnant water in or around your house. He also said people should use repellant and wear long sleeved clothes, especially at night. 

Meanwhile, the City of Des Moines did not do mosquito spraying this year due to budget constraints. How has that affected the mosquito numbers? 

“Obviously, we don’t have specific traps in the city of Des Moines. We have had ongoing partnerships with greater parts of Polk County. And so we do have some information for Polk County,” Smith said. “We have seen West Nile Virus activity in parts of Polk County. But it’s really hard for us to really see the immediate impacts of them not participating in some kind of a vector control measure because anything would be kind of circumstantial to what’s going on in other parts of the state.”