Biting gnats out in full force
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) The Metropolitan Mosquito Control District says gnats are really bad in some parts of the south metro.
The agency has been sweeping neighborhoods for gnats since last week, according to MMCD public affairs coordinator Alex Carlson. They then take them back to the lab to find out where they’re coming from so they can treat those rivers and streams.
“We had a crew doing a sweep over here today. This is in Bloomington, and they found about a dozen black flies in their net,” Carlson said. “We go on a bridge and we dump a larvicide into the water that specifically targets the black fly larva.”
South Twin Cities metro besieged by aggressive, biting gnats
Metropolitan Mosquito Control District has received more than 100 calls in recent days.
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Now, they ve logged more than 100.
That s right: Gnats are back out in the Twin Cities.
MMCD said it s been getting lots of calls about the gnats - actually called black flies - recently, with most coming from Burnsville, Savage and Bloomington, Carlson said. They ve also received reports of black flies from areas near streams in Minneapolis, Hastings and Maple Grove. Our sweeps are finding a lot of activity near Nine Mile Creek, Minnehaha, and Vermillion, he said.
These biting gnat surges are becoming a bit of a spring ritual, with similar reports over the past couple years. That includes the local debut of Simulium tuberosum in 2020 - a more aggressive species of black fly than the ones typically seen in the region.