Photo: WBZ NewsRadio
HAVERHILL, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — You might want to keep the bug spray handy for your next nature walk.
It's been a slow start to spring in Massachusetts, but it looks like the ticks and mosquitoes didn't get the memo.
Lisa Freitas, owner of Northeast Organic Tick Control in Haverhill, said her phone has been ringing off the hook for the past two weeks with people asking her to treat their lawns.
"It's early for sure," Freitas told WBZ NewsRadio's Shari Small. "I think we're going to have a very heavy mosquito season, they're already out in full force really."
Since last summer, New England has had more rain than usual, making for the perfect storm for an early and fierce mosquito season.
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To help keep the bugs away, Freitas suggested getting rid of any standing water around your home.
"Even your planters, the dish that's underneath it, just that little bit of standing water [and] in your gutters, there's standing water and mosquitoes will lay eggs in all of that," she said.
Freitas said she has been spraying lawns to keep ticks away since March and has already seen the critters start to make an appearance in the last two weeks.
"Once the temperature is 40 degrees and above the ticks will come out," Freitas said.
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