THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - Heavy rain has transformed normally dry fields and numerous backyards across the Inland Empire into soggy breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
As a result, bug experts are bracing for what could be one of the region’s worst mosquito seasons in recent memory.
When mosquitoes do emerge in a big way, their disruption to human activities will be aggravated by a recent trend, said Anandasankar Ray, a professor of molecular, cell and systems biology at UC Riverside.
It used to be that residents had to deal only with native Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes, which predictably bite early in the morning and in the evening, Ray said.
“In the past, if you were careful during dusk or dawn you were OK,” Ray said. “Now you have to start worrying about the daytime, too.”