SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – If there’s one thing most everyone can agree on these days it’s that the mosquitos are bad this summer. All of the moisture we’ve seen in KELOLAND has ramped up the annoying bugs.
“They have been awful,” Sioux Falls dad Joe Wilfahrt said. “I feel like I’m just feeding them by being outside.”
“I mean, I’m standing here with DermaCort or Hydrocortisone and bug spray,” Sioux Falls mom Kelci Thomas said. “We’ve been using soap and essential oils, we just keep trying all these different approaches but we just remain bit. We’ve been doing oatmeal baths to help with soothing little bodies but..”
“Not working!” Ren Thomas, Kelci Thomas’ daughter, said.
The kids are noticing too.
“Ren’s newest phrase was she said she’s been getting bugged,” Kelci Thomas said.
The City of Sioux Falls is aware of the issue.
“They’re full. The traps are full,” Dominic Miller, Sioux Falls Environmental Health Manager, said.
That’s why this week they are ramping up their mosquito control measures.
“We’re going to try to get the entire city sprayed, weather permitting,” Miller said. “They’re going to be doing a lot of turf treatments like over here at the Levitt. They’re going to be doing turf treatments at some of our ball fields and our parks and stuff. And then we’re going to be using our thermal foggers a lot this week.”
Miller says you can protect yourself from the pesky bugs by wearing things like mosquito repellant, wearing long clothes and wearing light colors.
There are also ways you can help the city out with their mosquito control.
“Primarily if people can just look around their yard, it doesn’t take very much water for mosquitos to breed in, so you know, any tarp or tire or little pail that’s holding water — get rid of that,” Miller said.
And hopefully, soon we can enjoy the outdoors without getting bit.
“We’re all bugged out aren’t we,” Kelci Thomas said.
Miller says right now all of the mosquitos the city has seen are just nuisances with no positive pools of West Nile.
If you’d like to stay informed on when and where the city is spraying, click here or text SPRAY to 888-777.
