Are there mosquitoes in New Mexico?

[raccoon]

We have beaucoups of them in the Southeast, but I wondered, being that it's so dry in the Southwest if they're able to hatch and proliferate.

[TygrBright]

1. Haven't seen any yet...

...but it's early in the season. If there are any wet areas left in the mountains there'll likely be a few there. Otherwise, nope. Just blackflies, greenflies, ants of many types, spiders of many types, and (in the southern part of the state) the odd scorpion or two.

I moved here from MD but don't miss the mosquitos. Born and raised in MN where they have REAL mosquitos, too, not those piddly (but annoying and abundant) little things they have along the Chesapeake watershed. Those MN mosquitos will pick up small dogs, babies, etc., and fly off with them to suck blood at leisure.

verily,
Bright

[Skelington]

2. Sounds like we have similar experience with bugs,

The bugs here in new mexico are not bad at all, my wife's family is in New Iberia LA. You haven't lived untill you get hit in the helmet by a 5 lbs flying cockroach at 60mph. We stopped shooting ducks and geese, the mosquitos were more tender.

[AspenRose]

3. I've seen the occasional one

but I live in the north, in the mountains.

Now, RABIES and PLAGUE, that's what you need to watch out for....

[Cybergata]

4. North Valley

I live in the North Valley, and we have some every summer. If it is a rainy season, I see many of them. I think they are predominately in the valley, but there are the clouds of them like in Minnesota.

[Thirtieschild]

5. No standing water = no mosquitoes

Very few mosquitoes here in the southwest corner, even during monsoon season. We put a stock tank out back for the deer, whoever, and put two koi and a goldfish in to take care of the mosquito eggs. Has worked out great. A neighbor who leaves out dishes of water for birds has had some mosquitoes. Such a relief after the kamakazi mosquitoes in Atlanta - they were active day and night, were huge and a bite didn't just sting but hurt for up to an hour. I've never figured out why people in the Southeast build decks instead of screened porches.

[lefthandedskyhook]

6. Open-top rain barrels breed them here

I received a likely attack of west nile virus from one of them at a Rio Rancho house two or three summers ago. The doctor said that my immune system would shrug it off before she could obtain any test results, so I was not tested.

On the other hand, we've had so little rain this year that mosquitoes must be rarer than they usually are in NM.

[havocmom]

7. I made covers for my rain-barrels. It works.

Got some window screening material from the hardware store. Cut circles several inches larger than the tops of the barrels. Sewed on some wide cotton twill or hem tape (used both to see how they held up - works fine) to make casings around the screen circles. Ran some stout, flexible cotton cord through the casings to cinch the covers up on the barrels.

Works like a charm. Am on year 3 of my experiment and the cotton tape/cords just starting to show some sun fading. I will probably put new casings and cord on this winter just so I don't have any breaking from rot next summer. The screening material will probably last a decade.

Whole project was less than 15 bucks for four rain-barrel covers. With just replacing casing material and cord every 3-4 years, it is a very cheap way to keep the bugs from using my garden water for laying eggs.

[lefthandedskyhook]

11. That's the trick we use at our house! n/t

[NMDemDist2]

8. it's been raining here for two weeks and I haven't seen a single one

in the far SE (Carlsbad)

[womanofthehills]

9. In Mountainair in the middle of the state - tons of rain & no mosquito's

Warning to those living in the north & south valley - the environmental dept is spraying pesticides from trucks including malathion. Call them up and get on their "no spray list." The reason I moved to Mountainair is for the very clean air and no mosquito spraying. When I lived in the south valley, my whole neighborhood became sick with asthma from over spraying by the city.

Mountainair is a really neat place to live.

[slestak]

10. Here in the Sandia foothills

It's been raining like mad -- no skeeters.

TONS of houseflies, though.

[lefthandedskyhook]

12. Ahem...

Our next door neighbor's here in Rio Rancho have not bothered to fix a leaky cooler on a flat roof for many months. We have had mosquitoes here since before the monsoon season really set in. I've spoken to them, but nothing has been done yet.

[RoadRunner]

13. Yeah, we got 'em.

but they're itty bitty ones that don't hurt much. More this year than most, prolly cause of the heavy monsoons.