Relentless rains mean big mosquito crop

Portland, Maine (AP) - Scientists are predicting a bumper crop of mosquitoes across the Northeast after a June full of heavy rains.

Mosquitoes make an appearance each spring as melting snow and spring showers create the standing water that mosquitoes need to reproduce.

Larvae die as the puddles dry up, but they haven't yet this year because of all the rain.
Clay Kirby of the University of Maine cooperative extension says the mosquitoes were so bad on a recent night that he had to seek shelter. And Robin Follette of Talmadge, Maine, says nature observers statewide have been reporting a hardy mosquito population. She publishes the Web site Maine Nature News.

She says "we're not getting rid" of the pests anytime soon.