2013 Mosquito Reports

[Wandering Daisy]

Loop from Wrights Lake- Rockbound Pass - Schmidell Lk- Leland Lks-4-Q Lakes-Rubicon River-Rockbound Pass-Gertrude-Tyler Lk. June 12-14.

First, the wind was howling! Night temperatures near freezing above 8,000 feet.
All areas were 1-2 .
8,000-ft elevation and lower were worst.
Even with no wind, Tyler Lake at 8,200 had no mosquitoes even at dusk and dawn.
China Flat on Rubicon was the worst.
All mosquitoes I saw were tiny baby ones. There is plenty of standing water out there right now.

[jaydub]

Young Lakes Yosemite 6/7 - 6/8. Wind and weather kept them down most of the time. When wind was not blowing, they were a minor annoyance.
Wet meadow areas between Dog Lake and lower Young Lake: 2 to 3
Lower and Middle Young Lake: 2
Upper Young Lake: 1 (lots of newly hatched ones, but not biting)

[BrianF]

Just back from a dayhike in the Cottonwood lakes area 6/16. There was a bit of a breeze and the only mosquitos I encountered were along the creek near the Golden Trout camp - about a 2. Up in the lake basin even when there was no breeze it was a 0. The meadows are looking dry and the lakes are a few feet low - you can see the bathtub ring of high water from years past and many of the little streams are already dry

[cvr]

Sabrina Basin 6/13-6/16. Hungry Packer Lake, Moonlight Lake, Echo Lake, Midnight Lake, Blue Heaven Lake. It was a bit breezy most of the time, but when there was no breeze the mosquitos were only about a 2. In the lower, more forested areas they were a little worse, but overall, not notable by any means. It's pretty dry up there for mid-June.

[sparky]

Rafferty Creek, Vogelsang Pass, Lewis Creek, Florance Lake Basin, Lake Merced, LLY. Most areas were a 1 or a 2, Vogelsang was the worst at a 3+. I forgot bug juice and only had a short sleeve shirt and was pretty much fine. I put on my head net once or twice just for a few minutes. When I would encounter a 2 or 3, I would just move 1/4 mile and it would be a 0.

[J ney]

JMT through Lyell Canyon (15/16Jun)
Above 10,500': About a 2... not very noticeable.
Below 10k and on the way down to Lyell Cyn: 3/4... certainly enough to keep you moving!

[Peech]

Long Lake = 1, barely noticeable with slight breeze
High Lake = 0, I found the boggy areas by the outlet still iced over with no signs of life at 8am on Sunday.

[egull]

Gianelli Cabin TH to Chewing Gum Lake.

Overall rating about 2-3.
Not bad when on the trail or at night.
In camp though, once the sun came up the mosquitoes were out and got progressively worse.
DEET and headnets were used.

[larroyo33]

3-4 if near the water or snow. The mosquitoes were better at dawn/dusk and when the wind was blowing hard, but if it was the middle of the day and hiking near the water, I basically could not stop for even 5 seconds without getting swarmed.

[Talimon]

We did some day-hiking around Mammoth, and also a 3 day trip from South Lake into Dusy Basin (all between 6/16 and 6/21). Overall mosquitoes were almost always existent, but largely mitigated by the wind during this time-period:

Agnew Meadows to Thousand Island Lake (via High Trail): 4-5 in Agnew Meadows, 2-3 up on the High Trail and at Thousand Island. Almost non-existent when wind picked-up, but this didn't make much of an impact in the more woodsy areas.

Lake Mary up to Mammoth Crest: 1 pretty much the entire way. Most of the hike we did not see any at all. It was windy, however, so it is hard to tell.

South Lake to Dusy Basin: 1 around South Lake, 3-4 around Chocolate Lake and Long Lake, 1 around Bishop Pass, and 3-4 in Dusy Basin. However, due to very strong winds in the basin, we were almost always able to avoid them. In the morning, winds were coming from the South-east, and right around 5 PM they seemed to shift to the North-west. Our campsite blocked the morning winds, so we had to ditch camp early, but in the evening we had none at all. I recommend checking wind conditions, as when the wind died they were quite atrocious.