The flood waters may be gone from much of the Texas coastline, but the mosquitos are back, and they're making life miserable for crews helping rebuild after Hurricane Harvey, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Photos on social media show trucks splattered with the little blood-suckers, covering license plates and windows. During a storm, the mosquito larvae is often washed away, but quickly comes back, thanks to humidity and standing water, which is common now.
Baylor College of Medicine’s Dr. Peter Hotez tells 1200 WOAI news, luckily these mosquitoes are not the ones that carry the Zika virus.
"They can be very aggressive and bothersome for people although they do not transmit much human disease," he says.
He says the mosquito they're seeing after Hurricane Harvey is the Aedes vexans. The one that carries Zika is the Aedes aegypti.
But, that does not mean that there will not be any health effects from these dramatic clouds of little bugs.
"After Hurricane Katrina, there was a big increase in West Nile. Even up to a year later, there was a big increase.
"In Harris County, in addition to trapping and testing the bugs, the mosquito control division has employees stand with bare arms so someone can county how many bites they receive. Dr. Hotez says, while that sounds crude, its' an accurate measure of the mosquito problem.