TYLER, Texas — If you've spent any time outside recently, you might have noticed those pesky mosquitos starting to make their appearance again for the season.
April and May showers don’t just bring flowers, they also create the perfect environment for mosquitoes.
"Moisture means mosquitos, always. It doesn’t take very much," Tony Santangelo, CEO innovative pest control said.
Santangelo says that with the recent rain comes standing water and these pests don’t need much to multiply.
"It doesn’t take much water, they can lay eggs in a bottle cap. If you have any standing water or anything that will hold water, flip it over or get rid of it," Santangelo said.
Mosquitoes can carry a number of diseases, and it only takes one bite to transmit them to a host. We can’t completely get rid of them, so the best we can do is try to keep them from reproducing.
"If one mosquito is doing 25 or 30 bites in an hour, 10 mosquitos is doing 250 to 300 bites," Santangelo said.
People aren’t the only ones that can suffer from mosquitoes. If your pets spend time outside and aren’t protected properly, they can also be in harm's way.
"Mosquitoes carry heartworms, and heartworms are a very large worm that are deposited in the skin through a mosquito bite and then go to the heart and become a very large spaghetti sized worm. It’s very common in dogs but it can happen in cats as well," Laura Cauthen, owner of Animal Medical Center of Tyler, said.
Cauthen says even if your pet doesn’t go outside often, just a single mosquito bite while they aren’t protected could cause a long term and costly problem.
"It just takes one mosquito bite and that can deposit the larvae– one mosquito bite"
So whether it’s protecting people or your pets, the best way to battle mosquito season is to prevent it early and from the source.