HOUSTON – It was nice to get a break from the cold, but with the good comes the potential of bad. Mosquito traps are out, and with the warming temps, how long will it be before the Houston area has to deal with those pesky mosquito critters?
As it turns out, it may be sooner than we think because contrary to common belief, not all mosquitoes die when temperatures dip below freezing.
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"What a lot of them do is they will, if it doesn't freeze solid," said Kyle Flatt, field operations manager of Harris County Mosquito Control. "They'll just kind of slow way down and they'll be fine."
It seems that of the 56 varieties of mosquitoes in Harris County, some of them are pretty tough.
"There's going to be small numbers in our area most of the time," said Flatt. "I don't think most people will notice them."
Cool weather does slow larvae growth, but what takes three weeks to a month now will only take a few days this summer.
There's no one rule that applies to all mosquitoes except that they love water to breed. The other is that overnight temperatures in the 70s tends to spur their growth. It looks like the Houston area won't see those kinds of temperatures until maybe May.