A record-breaking wet spring and a few warm days are having one consequence Portlanders might be less thrilled about than the beautiful blooming flowers: a huge explosion in the mosquito population in Multnomah County.
“We are seeing the most mosquitoes I’ve ever seen in my career,” said Bek Sudia, a public health ecologist for the county. “I’ve been in doing this field of work for 12 years.”
“We have caught about 40,000 mosquitoes so far,” said Sudia. “By comparison last year we caught about 6,000. For the entire season. We are not even halfway through this season yet.”
Most of these mosquitos are out on Sauvie Island, Sudia said, where the mosquitos are so thick “they fly behind your sunglasses and swarm you.”
If there’s any good news in the swarms of mosquitos it’s that so far, no diseases have been detected in the population.
Multnomah County hasn’t seen a case of West Nile virus since 2007, Sudia said.
But, she added, “some of these mosquitoes have the potential to carry West Nile virus. And we’re saying when there are more mosquitoes that does slightly increase the potential.”
The county isn’t ringing warning bells Sudia said, “but we are urging people to use a lot more precautions because there is potential that West Nile could be here.”
To be safe, she said, stay inside at dusk and dawn, when the bugs are most active and if you cannot, use repellent.
Other worrisome diseases like Zika and Dengue aren’t found in the species of mosquitos that live this far north, Sudia said.
“There is a potential with climate change, that those could move northward into our area,” she said, but noted it wasn’t an immediate concern.
Relief for those living near the Columbia River especially isn’t on the way just yet. According to Sudia, the county is heading into peak mosquito season and has about six more weeks until things really begin to calm down.
The county is doing some “fogging” or spraying mosquitos with the same substance used by dog owners to kill fleas.
“We do it very judiciously,” Sudia said, meaning only in sparsely populated natural areas like on Sauvie Island.
While people who live away from the Columbia might not be noticing the increase in mosquitos, those who travel to Sauvie Island likely are.
“It’s not very pleasant to go swimming on Sauvie Island right now,” Sudia said.
— Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052 lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker
