After Flood, Expect Mosquitoes
(CBS) -- As floodwaters recede, they leave behind a new health threat: billions and billions of mosquitoes.
The floodwaters reached places they had never been, and the Lake County Health Department warns mosquitoes won't be far behind, because of all the water standing in odd paces.
Chief biologist Mike Adam says Culex mosquitoes that bear the West Nile virus are not likely to be part of the first few waves.
But he said the supposedly good news is painful, because the floodwater mosquitoes that will precede the Culex bite aggressively at all hours of day and night.
The Culex mosquitoes that carry West Nile have not been seen in large numbers in Lake County this year until now, but he said that can change in a matter of days. Mosquitoes go from larvae to mature in a week.
All in all, he said, far north suburbanites can expect two miserable months.
The county's 2017 budget did not anticipate severe mosquito infestation. He said "a bit" of money is in the county budget for emergency larvacide treatments he said a search has begun for additional funding.
Round Lake Park employs a private mosquito abatement business. Normally it sprays once a month.
Mayor Linda Lucassen says she has told them to step up the spraying.
