Mosquitoes Lay Siege to Maryland

Must poison them all...

Anyone in the D.C. Metropolitan area thinking this late-springtime is a bit "buggier" than usual? As in, when you walk outside for one minute on a humid, damp day, you're getting 12 bites instead of the usual four or five? Well, it's not just your paranoia or mood imagining things. In Maryland, at least, mosquito attacks are "exploding" this year, according to officials who studied this using the exact same hypothetical measurement mentioned above.

Bet you didn't know that Maryland's Department of Agriculture has a "mosquito control division," did you? It certainly does, and a fellow named Mike Cantwell is its "mosquito control chief."

Mike Cantwell has much to control this year, because of all the rain, so prepare for the Airborne Toxic Event:

"This could very well be the worst year we have had in a couple of decades if this rainfall pattern keeps up," said Mike Cantwell, chief of the Maryland Department of Agriculture's mosquito control division.

His crews measure mosquito populations by counting how many land on their arms in a minute. On the lower Eastern Shore, 12 per minute is enough to call for aerial spraying.

That's some fancy science, huh?

While the Eastern Shore of Maryland may have the highest of all high densities, the little runts that breed there are nothing compared to the Death Monsters seen in cities, which are actual Tigers.

In urban areas, Asian tiger mosquitoes - persistent daytime biters - are busy breeding in clogged gutters and backyard containers. "At some point, I would expect we will ultimately be above normal levels for tigers this year, too," Cantwell said.

Perhaps this is why people choose to live in the West.

Jim Newell writes for Wonkette and IvyGate.

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