NEAR PONCA, Neb. (KTIV) -
Bugs already bugging you in Siouxland? Many say, "You better believe it." Officials disagree.
Like many at Ponca State Park, Terry Homan is spending his daylight hours finding fun outside -- and at night, he's battling bugs.
"You go inside the camper after dark and they would just come after you like mad the minute you turned the lights on," said Homan.
Terry's complaint of copious creepy crawlers is something that's got people buzzing across the country. Exterminators have already started exterminating, finding bugs that seem bigger and "badder" than usual.
"Few spiders up underneath this trim board," said Exterminator Gerry Marsh.
In our neck of the woods, entomologists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln disagree.
"I don't see anything different then past years. Nothing that really jumps out," said Keith Jarvi UNL Entomology.
Jarvi says a mild winter may have brought out a few species a bit earlier this year. But for things like mosquitoes and gnats, size and number depend on the weather when they emerge.
"They're really at the whims of mother nature, and so whether they become very heavily populated depends on their emergence and the weather during their emergence," said Jarvi.
If bugs are still bugging you though, Jarvi says clear away any standing water... and if you're like Homan keep your spray can handy.
"Sprayed the inside of the camper to kill everything, seems to have done a fairly good job, now," said Homan.
