From Rains to Mosquitos

"BALTIMORE (AP) - Heavy rains have made excellent conditions for mosquitoes to breed, and experts are predicting a boom year for the biting bugs.

"'I think we're going to have a pretty spectacular season,' said Mike Raupp, an entomologist at the University of Maryland, College Park.

"A plentiful mosquito population creates more potential for cases of West Nile virus and encephalitis in people and horses, along with heartworm in dogs.

"'With the deluge, there will be an awful lot of (breeding) habitat. And if the trend of thundershowers continues, and maintains these habitats, we'll see a bumper crop by the second or third week of July,' Raupp told The (Baltimore) Sun." ...