Mosquitoes in Worcester: What’s Water Got to Do With It?

Have you ever noticed a week after heavy spring Worcester rain the mosquitoes are more plentiful than they were before it rained? When it comes to mosquito population growth, it is all about water. Female mosquitoes need standing water to lay their eggs. When the eggs hatch, the larvae need bacteria and other organic material found in standing water supplies for growing to the pupa and eventually adult stage when they fly out of the water source where they hatched. The real shocker is how fast this reproduction process can lead to millions of mosquitoes on your property.

How Fast Do Worcester Mosquitoes Multiply?

Female mosquitoes are to blame for those itchy annoying bites you endure. They need your blood to develop viable eggs. Once she has her blood meal, she can then lay up to 300 eggs at one time. Each female mosquito can do this up to three times in her short life. Quick math tells us that a single female mosquito can be responsible for creating 900 offspring of her very own. But, it is important to consider all of the offspring her offspring can produce in a very short time.

We’ll assume half of the 300 newly hatched mosquitoes are female. After one week growing through the larva and pupa stages, these 150 female mosquitoes will fly out into the world in search of their blood meal. Along with their mother, at the end of this 2nd week of our mathematical mosquito equation, these 151 mosquitoes will lay approximately 45,300 eggs. Half of which are expected to also be females.

Along with our 151 female mosquitoes from week two, 22,650 more female mosquitoes will seek out a blood meal to lay their raft of 300 mosquito eggs. If all of these mosquitoes hatch, along with our original matriarch and her first 150 female offspring laying eggs again, the total baby boom from this batch will be approximately 6,840,300 mosquitoes. That is almost 7 million mosquitoes spawning from a single female in just 3 weeks’ time.

Billions of Mosquitoes in About A Month

During week four, almost 3.5 million female mosquitoes will be laying approximately 300 eggs each. When those hatch, we’ll be adding 1,032,840,000 (Yes, billions!) to the existing mosquito population that is already in the tens of millions. As you can see, the odds are against us in the fight to avoid mosquito bites and mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile Virus or Zika Virus.

Without Water, Mosquitoes Can’t Multiply

We urge you to help yourself, your neighbors and your city by following the 5 T’s of Mosquito Control to a tee. Keeping your Worcester property clear of standing water is the single biggest factor in avoiding this mosquito population boom during the summer months. Even with a dry yard, there will inevitably be a neighbor or a public area that allows some mosquito reproduction. Mosquitoes can come to your yard from these outlying areas. And when they do, make sure they are eliminated upon entry with our traditional barrier spray.

Mosquito Squad of Worcester’s most popular mosquito control will eliminate 85-90% of the mosquitoes in your yard for up to 21 days. Sign up for the season and we’ll automatically respray every 2-3 weeks all season long.