They're as aggressive as they are big.
Bloodthirsty mosquitoes continue to swarm and dart in areas of Southeast Texas despite the season change.
The Jefferson County Mosquito Control has had an unusually busy winter start, thanks in part to recent storms that have kept already over saturated marshes wet.
"We're dealing with a byproduct of Hurricane Ike," Pilot Jeff Douthitt, who has worked 22 years with the Jefferson County Mosquito Control District, said. "When I'm flying, I can see a whole lot of water on the ground."
Douthitt said mosquito control takes every opportunity possible to spray. However, their efforts have been hampered by recent weather - fog, wind and cold temperatures.
When it's foggy the pilots can't see to fly. If it's too windy, they can't spray because of chemical guidelines.
And if it's too cold, the mosquitoes aren't out, rendering the chemicals ineffective.
"It's unusual for us to be flying this time of year, but the mosquitoes are bad," field foreman Kevin Sexton said before he and Douthitt took off on a flight just before dusk Wednesday.
Sexton said he was called in from vacation for spray duty.
The mosquitoes most prevalent now are the salt marsh and rice field species.
The rice field mosquito breeds in flooded fields and can travel up to 40 miles; the salt marsh mosquito can fly up to 60 miles, according to Enterprise archives.
Earlier this year, rain from Tropical Storm Edouard created just the right conditions to awaken dormant eggs in low lying areas, according to Enterprise archives.
Then along came Ike, the second of the one-two punch for the region.
Southeast Texas saw a similar rise in mosquito activity after Hurricane Rita.
This summer, mosquito activity was fairly light compared with previous years. This year is also a record breaker of sorts. For the entire month of July, the mosquito control had no reports of any West Nile-carrying mosquitoes, which last occurred in 2004, according to Enterprise archives.
The previous two years West Nile-infected mosquitoes were found as early as June, according to Enterprise archives.
