Since we are riding a southern route of Iowa and are going to be near the Iowa Missouri borders with lots of humidity, how bad do think the Mosquito’s and Ticks will be?
I know in last few years it has not been a bad problem but with the heat and humidity of this year I wonder about it.
Jason
7 Replies
Warm weather came early to northern Illinois this year but curiously the mosquitoes seemed slow to take advantage of it. I first started to notice them about a week ago whereas the weather has seemed warm enough for them for a couple of months. So far they have not been a huge issue and late July is typically a drier period of the year which suppresses their numbers. Most years. It is rain more than humidity that drives their population surges. I think you tend to notice them more when it is humid since the one misery adds to the other! Plus rain can make it humid and vice versa. And of course northern Illinois is close to but certainly not the same as southern Iowa so our experience in July may vary from my experience here in June.
My dogs are my tick barometers and so far I would say it has been a below average year. But again, northern Illinois, not southern Iowa.
I’ve done 15 RAGBRAI’s and cannot recall a year when the mosquito’s (state bird of Virginia???) were bad. If you make any trips through the edge rows (strips of grass between the roads and cornfields) or any other heavy growth areas, watch out and check for ticks. They don’t seem to hang around the corn too much, but LOVE the overgrown grass areas.
There will be more people than mosquitoes. I have hosted one tick over the last 20 plus rides, a very nice EMT removed the critter and put him in a plastic vial. His RAGBRAI ride was over.
RIDE RIGHT
For the mosquitos, it will likely depend on the amount of rain prior to RAGBRAI. I’ve never had a tick on RAGBRAI.
It is not a bad misquito year, it is a very bad year for gnats around here. “Dog pecker gnats” as the farmers call them (I am in in southeast Iowa) are pretty bad this year. They seem to only be able to find you when your speed drops so I think of them as “training buddies”. I don’t know if any bug spray even works on them.
Kwog
been dry with no standing water for awhile. Could change over the next month. No ticks or skeeters in the corn but…. CORN BEAR!!!!!
do watch out for these in the ditches. http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/icm/2007/7-9/poison.html