The wet weather that Arkansas has seen this season means more breeding ground for mosquitoes, but people can best protect themselves from bites and bumps by cleaning up the puddles around their homes, said Dr. Susan Weinstein, the public health veterinarian at the Arkansas Department of Health.
Above-average precipitation has beset central and south Arkansas in the first five months of the year, according to National Weather Service data.
That can leave standing water in yards, in gutters on homes, on the trays below flower pots and even on leaves, Weinstein said.
The mosquitoes that carry diseases such as West Nile virus tend to hang around small pools of water, not lakes or rivers, Weinstein said.
"There's a lot an individual can do that will really help with the problem around their home," she said.
That includes cleaning out gutters, draining standing water, cutting back vegetation that's close to the home and spraying oneself with bug repellent that includes DEET or an equivalent.
The Health Department doesn't have guidelines for cities to handle mosquitoes, but officials with the Arkansas Municipal League said many cities include spraying for mosquitoes in their city budgets.
A wet summer doesn't necessarily coincide with more cases of mosquito-carried diseases, such as West Nile virus, however.
Arkansas' notably dry, hot summer of 2012 had more cases of West Nile than each of the past two wet years combined.
In 2012, 64 cases of West Nile virus originated in Arkansas and led to seven deaths, according to Health Department data. In 2013 and 2014, 28 cases and two deaths were reported. Only one case of eastern equine encephalitis was reported in any of those years -- 2013 -- and it resulted in one death.
West Nile virus doesn't affect 70 percent to 80 percent of the people who contract it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Typical symptoms include headache, body aches, throwing up, diarrhea or rash, and severe symptoms occur in few people.
But people should still protect themselves from mosquitoes, Weinstein said, as newer diseases are inching closer to the United States: dengue fever and chikungunya.
Chikungunya moved from Africa to Asia to the Caribbean, where it's closer to the United States than ever before, Weinstein said.
Chikungunya is a disease that causes joint pain but rarely results in death, according to the CDC.
Dengue fever, which is potentially fatal, affects as many as 400 million people a year, according to the CDC.
It can cause high fever, severe headaches, severe eye pain, joint pain, muscle and/or bone pain, a rash, mild bleeding and a low white blood cell count. Symptoms can include throwing up blood and difficulty breathing.
CBS News in Miami reported last summer that a few cases of dengue fever were identified by the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County as having originated in Florida last summer.
Metro on 05/26/2015