Minnesota is a state well known for lots of mosquitoes in the summertime, that is to be expected with all the water we have. Although they are not as bad here on our farm as they were when we lived on the river, unless we step into the woods! There, from June to early September they will generally carry you off to eat you.
But here is my complaint against ‘mother nature’. How is it that we get blessed with a species of those critters that will live all winter in our house? We have seen them when it is 20 below zero. I have often commented that it just did not seem “fair” to have one of those flying vermin buzz my ear, when I could barely keep my blood warm! This is something that we have always noticed, but since we use wood for heat we always assumed the larva came in on the wood and the varmints hatched in the woodpile. This year we have more than normal and thought it was because of the extremely mild weather we are having this fall.
But my lovely wife has learned that this is not the case at all. There really is a specie of mosquito that survives through the winter outside the larva stage, but inside houses. A MN DNR publication calls them “house mosquitoes”, the Latin name is (Culex pipiens), which I am not going to look up. I know this fellow well enough without checking out his genealogy, history or places he likes to live. They are rather large and live in their adult stage over winter wherever they can find a warm place to stay. Thus explains a 24 year mystery.
This reminds me of the ‘snow flea’, but that will be for another time.
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