2023 Mosquito Reports

[maverick]

Use the following scale to report severity of the mozzies you experience:

0 - No mosquitoes

1 - They were present, but not biting yet

2 - Very light during the day, moderate at dawn and dusk

3 - Moderate during the day, heavy at dawn and dusk

4 - Heavy during the day, heavy at dawn and dusk

5 - Unbearable all day, no breaks, cannot eat outside of tent. If you stop, hundreds will descend on you; when looking thru a camera viewfinder, you see more skeeters than lake. If you slapped your arm, you'd smear blood from all the dead gorged bodies

Please do not post questions or ask about a particular area in this thread, any off topic comments will be deleted.

Please, include where you went, with dates included, in the "Subject" box. Thanks

[michaelzim]

Week of May 22nd. - May 27th. 2023

The "1" rating for mosquitoes seems counterintuitive, so I am going to use a "0" for No Bugs...Of which, there were basically no bugs "0" at Kennedy Meadows South (c. 6,000 ft.) this past week save one or two mosquitoes at dusk. Likewise there were none on the PCT going north all the way up into the snow at 10,300 ft.
There were none at the few trailheads I popped into on the east side, nor on an afternoon day hike up to 8,800 ft. along the N. Fork Big Pine Creek.
From the amount of water around this happy state of affairs will not last long.
M.

[bthsieh]

Chilnualna Falls Trail - Yosemite
May 26 - 29
Most of the trail was a 0. Very light 1 at camp near the top of the falls (6,400'). Pretty much a 0 on our Sunday day hike off-trail up Chilnualna Creek to 6,900'. However, on the way out when we stopped for a few minutes at the stock trail junction at ~4,500' it was a 2.

[maverick]

This thread is for reports only; all other posts will be deleted. Please post any inquiries in a separate post in the appropriate section. Thanks

[Love the Sierra]

Little Lakes Valley 0
Horseshoe Meadow Road, at campsite 9,400’- 1
Hilton Lakes Trail 1, below 10,000’ in forest

[mountaineer]

June Lake Loop including Rush Creek Trail-2

June20-23.

[aaron_in_sf]

Mono Hot Springs (6500') and surrounding areas over Kaiser Pass below Lake Edison - 0

June 21 - 25

Did see one, and I think it was exactly one, no bites. Visited various marshy lakes... quiet.

[fpb56]

June 21-26, hiked out Chilnualna Falls trailhead to Chilnualna Lakes 8500’ area. I am serious about this rating. Mosquito rating - 0. There is a lot of snow still above 7500’ and I guess it was to cold for them and the lakes were still frozen over.

[michaelzim]

Basically as good as ZERO! Very hard to believe but true.
~ North Lake campground = zero even at dawn and dusk.
~ Lamarck Lakes trail and Piute Pass trail = zero.
~ South Lake parking lot and trail mid-afternoon = zero.
~ McGee Creek trailhead at just 7,800 ft. and early evening = zero. Amazing.
This situation is very, very far from what I was expecting. We all thought there would be black clouds of the beasties by now.

[Quercus23]

Headed in on Tuesday 27th, out Fri 29th.
Visited Dicks, Middle Velma, and Stony Ridge Lakes.

Mosquitos were a 0.5; few visible (primarily at dusk), and those that were were not biting. Expect that to change very soon as remaining ice melts off the lakes, and standing water & overnight temps increase with this weekend's heatwave.