Mosquitoes All The Buzz This Year

Rapacious mosquitoes were biting in numbers rarely seen before in Western states. Because of prime mosquito conditions this year - a wet, cool spring - visiting campers, bikers, hikers and anglers, for that matter, anyone who spent a little time outdoors, needed a ready supply of bug repellent and, possibly, a few potent cigars.

According to some outdoors people, the mosquito onslaughts occurred most savagely in the Big Hole and Beaverhead valleys of southwest Montana.

“The Red Rock River area is the worst I’ve ever seen,” said Ryan Reichle who works as a fly-fishing guide at Frontier Anglers in Dillon, Mont. “It’s insane, beyond comprehension; definite headnet territory.”

Mosquitoes hunt individually, each vying for a tasty portion of your body. But only the females bite, to gain the nutrition to develop their eggs.

There are two types of western mosquitoes and, although they thrive throughout the region, their presence is likely more significant to man than it is to birds, trout and even frogs.

Temporary water mosquitoes, Aedes, lay their eggs at the receding water line. When the water rises and covers those egg mines, millions of bugs go on a blood-sucking rampage. During drought years, when the water level remains low, those eggs rest dormant. They can do so for 15 years, which means a high water year after a series of droughts can ignite western rivers with multiple generations of mosquitoes. That was the case last year and, with high water again, the same held true this summer.