The rains of the past few weeks likely will result in a flood of mosquitoes, and the City of Ames is preparing to fog city parks to combat the dreaded bugs.

“Once the rains quit, the mosquitoes will be hatching in great numbers,” City Sanitarian Kevin Anderson said in a press release.

“If it turns hot and dry, this will help take care of the problem, but if we continue to get a lot of rain, the mosquitoes will be terrible,” he said.

Ken Holscher, associate professor of entomology, said because the number of mosquitoes is determined by the frequency of rainfall, it is difficult to predict how large the population will be during the remainder of the summer.

“We have a lot of mosquitoes statewide that we are dealing with right now,” Holscher said. “It’s a direct turnaround from last summer, when we had one of the lowest statewide mosquito counts.”

Until now, the city has been larviciding to control mosquito eggs, but the recent wet weather calls for a more aggressive stance.

“As long as it’s not raining and we don’t have winds over 10 miles per hour, we will fog the parks,” Anderson said. He said the products are not harmful to people or the environment.

Anderson advised Ames residents to check eaves spouts, bird baths and other receptacles for standing water, because those places are breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Holscher said controlling mosquitoes is difficult and needs to be approached from a community standpoint, not an individual standpoint.

“I believe that you can eliminate every mosquito that is developing on your property by getting rid of standing water, but if your neighbors aren’t doing that, you won’t notice a difference,” he said.

Holscher pointed out that mosquitoes are very mobile and don’t recognize property lines.

“You could go to a lot of work and still not know it from a biting standpoint,” Holscher said.

The fogging started Monday night at Moore Memorial and Emma McCarthy Lee Parks. Inis Grove Park and Homewood Golf Course were fogged on Tuesday, and Brookside and River Valley Parks were on the slate for Wednesday.

The same areas will also be fogged July 6-8. All fogging takes place between 8 and 10 a.m. In case of rain, the parks will be fogged July 3 and July 10.