Visitors to St. Paul’s Hidden Falls Regional Park are swatting away mosquitoes. It’s one of the hot spots for the pests in Minnesota right now, according to the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District, which tracks the state’s mosquito population.

According to MMCD, Carver and Scott counties are also seeing high mosquito levels, particularly Carver, Jordan and Belle Plaine.

“There’s definitely some hot spots around the Twin Cities when it comes to mosquitoes,” said Alex Carlson, the public affairs manager for MMCD. “Anywhere close to rivers, which are cresting right now, are seeing a lot of uptick in mosquito activity and black fly activity just because the pooling, standing water is creating a lot of mosquito habitat.”

The rainy month of May also spurred growth.

“Every time we get an inch of rain, it hatches another brood of mosquitoes,” said Carlson, who explained the wind and rain also made it hard to get their helicopters up for treatment.

He said they initially thought this would be a slow year for mosquitoes because of the lack of snowfall during the winter. The population has, however, caught up with the increased precipitation.

Data from MMCD shows this season so far is above the 10-year average.

“The trap that’s in this [Hidden Falls Regional Park] area collected over 500 mosquitos just this past week, which is pretty high,” Carlson said. “Usually an active year we see about 100.”

He explained this could change as the summer continues.

“Right now, we’re in the surge part, so we have to watch the weather from here on out to see does the rain slow down? And do we begin to decline again like we did last year? Or does it just keep on raining and we have a very active summer,” Carlson said.

He recommends wearing light-colored clothing, avoiding scented soaps and shampoos before going outside and using bug spray.

“Dress in layers, keep yourself covered,” said Mary Murphy, who was out for a walk along the Mississippi River in long pants and a sweatshirt. “This whole week they’ve been eating me alive.”

Steve Silver, playing with his dog at the park, shared the same recommendation.

“Long clothing, a cap, even one with a net, and use some relatively safe bug balm,” Silver said. “Sometimes, if I’m wearing a baseball cap, I’ll spray citronella on it and, more or less, works.”

He noticed there have been more mosquitoes earlier this year.

“They’ve come on strong,” he said, explaining he was at the park the night before, too. “I was getting eaten alive.”

The Environmental Protection Agency has a list of bug repellents that are safe and effective.