Residents concerned about mosquito outbreak in northern Indiana

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It isn’t hard to find bodies of standing water right now in several Northern Indiana Counties.

“When we get into rainy periods, we get a lot of puddles,” said Bob Yoder, Extension Educator in Agriculture and Natural Resources

Places like Warsaw and Plymouth experienced heavy rains throughout the summer causing lots of flooding and mosquito breeding there.

“The last couple weeks it seems like the mosquito population has exploded,” said Yoder.

Bob Yoder an expert in agriculture and natural resources says both Kosciusko and Marshall Counties are ideal spots for mosquitos to breed right now because of the abundance of small bodies of standing water.

“We’re actually really close to the Yellow River and a flowing river like that is not a good breeding ground for mosquito larva but these puddles are a good example. It’s stagnant water, there’s no aquatic life in there to feed upon the larva,” said Yoder.

Both county health departments say there just isn’t enough in the budget to begin a fogging process to help eliminate the mosquito issue but Kosciusko County says they’re doing what they can with a product called Larvicide to help prevent them from reproducing so quickly.

Yoder says you still need to be cautious of deadly diseases like Encephalitis or West Nile and stay dry.

“If you have a low immunity, at-risk type of person, those are the one’s we’re concerned with,” said Yoder.

“Keep everything dumped. If we have anything outside that can hold water, bird baths should be changed on a regular basis, we should have well functioning gutters that drain properly,” said Yoder.