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Hot summer and wet spring causes mosquito population to explode in Colorado

Hot summer and wet spring makes for a lot of mosquitos in Colorado
Hot summer and wet spring makes for a lot of mosquitos in Colorado 00:52

If you're finding yourself swatting at mosquitos more and more this summer, there's likely a good reason. 

The long and short of it is this: it's hot this summer and it was wet this spring. The science behind why that leads to a major boost of the bugs falls into the idea of a "perfect storm" condition for an explosive population burst from mosquitos.

Samuel Ramsey, endowed professor of entomology at the University of Colorado Boulder, was kind enough to share a few tips with CBS News Colorado reporter Spencer Wilson Monday afternoon.

"Colorado is not used to this level of rainfall, and mosquitos need standing water in order to reproduce," Ramsey said.

That's the basis behind it all, more spots for mosquitos to lay their eggs, with more standing water thanks to all the rainfall we've seen, and then hot enough temperatures that the bugs, who are ectotherms, or creatures who rely on external sources of body heat, can really go to town and lay thousands of eggs.

The bugs are also "R-Selective" species, meaning they have a ton of offspring who all live a short lifespan, but also mature quickly. It's the difference between most insects and something like an elephant that has far fewer offspring that live much longer -- a K-selected species. (Thanks for coming to our high school biology class refresher.)

So that means mosquitos are taking full advantage of our hot summer temperatures and our wet spring rains to get busy and balloon their population for the time being. So yes, it's not just you, we're all itching our bites as well.

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