Star Tribune
Mosquitos are getting an early start, but numbers may be down this year
Get that insect repellant ready. Blood-sucking mosquitoes are already out searching for a meal.
A lack of snowmelt and scant precipitation combined with unseasonable warmth has the first batch of the buzzing insects taking flight, bringing on the swatting and slapping season about a month early in a year when everything weather-related seems to be way ahead of schedule.
“We have had reports of adult mosquitos flying around and that is not surprising,” said Alex Carlson, a spokesman with the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District, the agency tasked with keeping the population suppressed. “They come out of hibernation when the weather warms up.”
Their early emergence doesn’t mean there will be a bumper crop of the pests this year. Early indications suggest far fewer mosquitos this season, a big change from last year when a spring surge pushed numbers well above the 10-year average in the metro for the first half of the summer.
“Earlier, but not as abundant,” Carlson said. Of course, the prediction is weather dependent, and a soggy April “could have them thriving everywhere.”
The agency uses a scale it has devised to determine when to begin treating about 200,000 acres of wetlands, ponds and marshes in the metro area. Each spring, the scale uses a formula that assigns one point for every degree the high temperature at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport rises above 40. A high temperature of 56 degrees, for example, would result in 16 points for the day.
When the total reaches 200, the district begins dropping pellets containing a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, or Bti, into the water. The pellets have a texture resembling Grape-Nuts cereal. Larvae ingest the pellets, killing them on the spot, the MMCD says.
The pellets are not harmful to humans or other animals, Carlson told the Star Tribune last year.
By the end of the week, Carlson said the scale would be at about 114, and at the current pace would reach the “magic number” by the first week of April.
That has the MMCD working to get seasonal staff hired, trained and out into the field about two weeks earlier than in most years, Carlson said.
To aid its fight against mosquitos, the MMCD two years ago used a drone to drop pellets in hard-to-reach places. This year the agency is adding two more drones and will use them in Anoka, Hennepin and Carver counties, Carlson said.
The MMCD found its first mosquito larva on Feb. 26 in Burnsville, something that didn’t happen last year until April, Carlson said.
Anoka County in the north metro is expected to have the most mosquitoes this year due to its numerous swamps and insect-producing habitat. Lower concentrations can be expected elsewhere across the seven-county area, the MMCD said.
Minnesota has 52 species of mosquitoes, with snowmelt variety the first to come out, and they will be coming, Carlson said.
“Now is the time to start taking preparations, dump standing water and get the bug spray ready,” he added.
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
