Virginia Beach, Va. (WTKR) - Virginia Beach Public Works crews are taking action against an early explosion in the mosquito population for the year.
According to the city, over the first five weeks of surveillance this year, they have trapped and processed more than 40,000 female mosquitoes.
That is about three times the total for the same period period last year.
The big numbers in Virginia Beach are mostly attributed to the one species, Coquillettidia perturbans, that is especially numerous early in the season.
On Friday, NewsChannel 3's Todd Corillo and photojournalist Megan Neeley traveled with Public Works crews out spraying ditches and other areas of the city to help get ahead of the problem.
"We had the rain. This week we get the increasing temperatures. That’s pretty much the recipe for bad mosquitoes," Maintenance Supervisor Thomas Carter told Corillo.
Carter says it only takes a small amount of standing water for mosquitoes to find the perfect place to multiply.
"Any standing water we run across, we’re seeing larvae in it. Of course we are doing the best we can in terms of spraying it."
