Has This Been the Worst Year Ever for Mosquitos in Massachusetts?

There are a lot of great things about the summer season in Berkshire County, but pesky little mosquitos are not one of them!

Lately, I've seen and heard a ton of people complaining about how bad the mosquitos are this year, but that happens every summer, right? Many people are convinced that this has been one of the worst years ever, and I think I might have to agree with them.

According to experts from The Mosquito Control Project, the heavy rains we experienced this summer have definitely contributed to a boom in the little buggers. It seemed like in July into August we experienced a deluge of heavy rains virtually on a daily basis and it was in fact one of the wettest summers The Berkshires had experienced in recent years, making a breeding ground for mosquitos.

However, experts say that sometimes a TON of rain can help get rid of the insects in certain situations because it's flushing the mosquitoes out of the storm drain and into wherever, to rivers and streams, killing the mosquitos.

The problem is when the rain does let up, the eggs hatch into larvae and the larvae sprout wings. According to WCVB 5, a surveillance trap recently broke a local record when it caught 24,000 mosquitoes in a single night in Norfolk, MA.

Another narrative locally in Berkshire County surrounding the little bloodsuckers is that in April Pittsfield's City Council voted against city-wide mosquito spraying.

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Because the regulation of exotic animals is left to states, some organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, advocate for federal, standardized legislation that would ban owning large cats, bears, primates, and large poisonous snakes as pets.

Read on to see which pets are banned in your home state, as well as across the nation.