By Haley Kosik/WJEZ News
CHAMPAIGN – Illinois can expect more mosquitoes thanks to the persistent rain around the state.
The recent rain will help certain types of mosquitoes breed, but not the kind which carry the West Nile virus.
University of Illinois entomologist Phil Nixon said it’s a common misconception that rain and floods mean more West Nile cases.
“We’ve had our biggest influxes of number of cases of West Nile virus on particularly dry years. People get to thinking that well, it’s dry, there’s no mosquitoes,” said Nixon.
That is the ideal conditions for the Northern House Mosquito, who transmits West Nile virus.
Nixon said a different species, the Inland Floodwater Mosquito, is the one which will benefit from this kind of weather. Floodwater mosquitoes pick dry ground to lay their eggs, which are flooded and hatch when the water rises.
