Where The Mosquito Bites: The 10 Buggiest Cities In The U.S.

This year's unseasonably warm winter means that bugs usually killed by the cold have hung around -- and they're hungry. As temps continue to rise, mosquitos and other biting insects are becoming increasingly pesky for lovers of the outdoors across the country -- and experts predict they'll be more plentiful than normal all season.

A new survey conducted by OFF! Insect Repellents ranked the top 50 U.S. cities most affected by mosquitos. The survey asked nearly 5,000 people to rate how strongly they agreed with the following statements, in relation to their home towns:

• I don’t walk outside without bug spray.
• I use bug spray when out for more than 30 minutes.
• Mosquitos are only bad in the evening.
• Mosquitos come out occasionally and are not a nuisance.
• Mosquitos are rarely a problem.

While mosquitos can carry various diseases like malaria, West Nile and encephalitis, only 29 percent of the respondents said they fear mosquitos for health reasons, while nearly 60 percent fear mosquitos because of those perpetually-itchy bites, according to the data, which was shared with HuffPost Healthy Living. Bugs are particularly prevalent in the South, where warmer weather means mosquitos can breed more months of the year.

Nationwide, about 9 percent of people say they don't walk outside without bug spray, and nearly 10 percent say they use bug spray when out for more than 30 minutes. Just over a quarter of respondents said mosquitos are only bad in the evening, or come out occasionally and don’t pose much of a problem. Nearly 30 percent said mosquitos are rarely a problem. In the buggiest cities, however, these stats are drastically different. Click through the slideshow below to see if your city made the list, and how the buggiest cities measure up. Then tell us in the comments how buggy your city is.

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• 10. Richmond, Virginia

  I don't walk outside without bug spray: 34.2 percent<br> I use bug spray when out for more than 30 minutes: 21.1 percent<br> Mosquitos are only bad in the evening: 21.1 percent<br> Mosquitos come out occasionally and are not a nuisance: 13.2 percent<br> Mosquitos are rarely a problem: 10.5 percent

• 9. Jacksonville, Florida

  I don't walk outside without bug spray: 4.2 percent<br> I use bug spray when out for more than 30 minutes: 20.8 percent<br> Mosquitos are only bad in the evening: 37.5 percent<br> Mosquitos come out occasionally and are not a nuisance: 20.8 percent<br> Mosquitos are rarely a problem: 16.7 percent

• 8. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Georgia

  I don't walk outside without bug spray: 7.5 percent<br> I use bug spray when out for more than 30 minutes: 22.6 percent<br> Mosquitos are only bad in the evening: 30.1 percent<br> Mosquitos come out occasionally and are not a nuisance: 29 percent<br> Mosquitos are rarely a problem: 10.8 percent

• 7. Birmingham-Hoover, Alabama

  I don't walk outside without bug spray: 16.7 percent<br> I use bug spray when out for more than 30 minutes: 27.8 percent<br> Mosquitos are only bad in the evening: 33.3 percent<br> Mosquitos come out occasionally and are not a nuisance: 11.1 percent<br> Mosquitos are rarely a problem: 11.1 percent

• 6. Memphis, Tennessee

  I don't walk outside without bug spray: 16 percent<br> I use bug spray when out for more than 30 minutes: 24 percent<br> Mosquitos are only bad in the evening: 48 percent<br> Mosquitos come out occasionally and are not a nuisance: 8 percent<br> Mosquitos are rarely a problem: 4 percent

• 5. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Florida

  I don't walk outside without bug spray: 12.8 percent<br> I use bug spray when out for more than 30 minutes: 14.9 percent<br> Mosquitos are only bad in the evening: 24.5 percent<br> Mosquitos come out occasionally and are not a nuisance: 31.9 percent<br> Mosquitos are rarely a problem: 16 percent

• 4. Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Virgnia-North Carolina

  I don't walk outside without bug spray: 14.6 percent<br> I use bug spray when out for more than 30 minutes: 27.1 percent<br> Mosquitos are only bad in the evening: 29.2 percent<br> Mosquitos come out occasionally and are not a nuisance: 25 percent<br> Mosquitos are rarely a problem: 4.2 percent

• 3. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas

  I don't walk outside without bug spray: 27.1 percent<br> I use bug spray when out for more than 30 minutes: 20.6 percent<br> Mosquitos are only bad in the evening: 26.2 percent<br> Mosquitos come out occasionally and are not a nuisance: 19.6 percent<br> Mosquitos are rarely a problem: 6.5 percent

• 2. New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, Louisiana

  I don't walk outside without bug spray: 40 percent<br> I use bug spray when out for more than 30 minutes: 26.7 percent<br> Mosquitos are only bad in the evening: 26.7 percent<br> Mosquitos come out occasionally and are not a nuisance: 0 percent<br> Mosquitos are rarely a problem: 6.7 percent

• 1. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida

  I don't walk outside without bug spray: 12.1 percent<br> I use bug spray when out for more than 30 minutes: 21.2 percent<br> Mosquitos are only bad in the evening: 42.4 percent<br> Mosquitos come out occasionally and are not a nuisance 16.7 percent<br> Mosquitos are rarely a problem: 7.6 percent<br>

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Comments

[RA H]

4 hours ago ( 7:09 PM)

You have it right. Tampa/St Pete has the worst mosquito's in the US. I am from Louisiana and it is brutal in Tampa Bay compared to La. My son went outside yesterday for a few minutes to try to go fishing near our lake. He came back with over 20 bites. You are screwed if you allow one asian tiger mosquito in your house at night. They will bite you numerous times. Some of these species have damn near cloaking devices. You see them one sec and the next they are gone. Ive locked myself in a small bathroom trying to find them for 30 minutes with no avail. I swear some of them are inter-dimensional.lol I have witnessed that the mosquito's here can lay on spider webs without sticking. They know how to land on them! The problem is so bad I am considering moving west to get away from them. If you dont have a lanai here you might as well not live here. The worst area so far for me has been Palm Harbor FL.

[Billy Bathgates]

07:31 PM on 04/29/2012

Wow, Minnesota is not on that list. Mosquitoes is our state bird :)

[LisaCACO]

05:38 PM on 04/28/2012

bugs like some people better than others. apparently I am fine cuisine to flying biting bugs and they swarm around me like a free buffet. Unless I am wearing high percentage deet (which I no longer do), they will eat me alive and enjoy. I have tried endless natural remedies, eaten everything suggested, including garlic, used endless natural bug sprays, and now I just accept that they love me- a lot. *sigh*

[musicmasterno1]

03:31 AM on 04/28/2012

Absolutely, positively, the best treatment for a mosquito bite is clear nail polish. A dab right on the bite and the itching is gone in a few minutes, never to return.

Get a bottle of cheap clear nail polish and keep it in your medicine cabinet.

[obid4it]

01:59 AM on 04/28/2012

I have traveled to several of these places and I have never experienced mosquitoes like we have in Minnesota. I really feel you missed the mark on this survey when you didn't include Minnesota in your survey. You can be devoured any spring/summer evening, even with bug spray.

[shahzhi]

06:32 PM on 04/27/2012

Help me out. Maybe I'm tired, so not understanding this survey. If responses from folks in NOLA rate: 40% never leave without spray on, 26.7 wear it if out for more than 30 minutes and 26.7 fall in the third worst category, how why would it be listed as 2nd buggiest? The stats for the city rated 1st aren't as high.

[martin1icecold]

01:20 PM on 04/27/2012

Cleveland, MS where I'm from is NO joke!

[OutAtFirst]

01:13 PM on 04/27/2012

My daughter could get mosquito bites at the North Pole in December. Luckily we live in a dry climate, so it's mostly a problem when we're vacationing.

[rray]

10:08 AM on 04/27/2012

Tampa-St Pete-Clearwater is absolutely the buggiest place on earth and I advise all snowbirds and Canadians to winter elsewhere.......just kidding... but slower traffic please keep to the right, we're not all on holiday

[Sulema Rodriguez]

09:37 AM on 08/23/2012

haha this is so true!

[globexXx]

08:43 AM on 04/27/2012

This is my second kitchen aid disposer, my first one lasted 32 years and was still working when we remodeled the kitchen ,so I did not hesitate to buy another , the installation was easy and the electrical hook up was simple . This disposer is much quieter than my previous one.

Webmaster of KitchenAid Garbage Disposal.

[homer winslow]

09:56 AM on 04/27/2012

That's nice.

[montanadan]

03:54 PM on 04/27/2012

Your Kitchen Aid disposer isn't as strong as one I got from Strickland Propane, I tell you what!

[thebarbecuemast]

05:07 AM on 04/27/2012

whats good in arizona is there is enough bats and owls and lizards and scorpions to eat these mospuitos

[nikki717]

04:37 AM on 04/27/2012

Consuming Garlic will stop the bitting. I haave not been bitten in years.

[montanadan]

03:56 PM on 04/27/2012

Maybe so, but how're the mosquitoes treatin' ya?

[jimtpat]

02:45 AM on 04/27/2012

When I was a kid here in Austin, Texas, we had terrible mosquitoes. At some point, they stopped bothering me. Then, I found out they weren't bothering anyone. What??? Did residual DDT from the 1950s finally make them extinct?

Nope, we have "the largest urban bat colony in the world" downtown. It's absolutely wonderful! If I ever move and get even one mosquito bite in a year someplace else, you can bet I'll be doing everything I can to get the locals to start up a bat colony there. Austin ought to start capturing and farming these critters.

[homer winslow]

09:57 AM on 04/27/2012

It has been years since I have watched the bats fly out from under the Congress street bridge at sunset. It is amazing how many they are and how many bugs each one consumes each night.

[lex19999]

06:32 PM on 04/27/2012

1 could call them flying hogs.

[donnamae1956]

10:18 PM on 04/28/2012

When I lived in Round Rock to the north of Congress Steet Bridge, at dusktimes, I would watch the bats leave their roosts under IH 35 bridge at McNeil Road. I had lived less than a moile or two from that location and would not ever see any bats around to eat these suckign critters when I go outdoors to tend to my garden. I too am a magnet babe for skeeters. I would have to apply OFF and similar stuff but am hesitant to use them anymore as they are unsafe to use over a long peirod of time. They fly far from local area to catch these bugs so they really don't help to have them nearby.

[Brandelyn Wiser]

01:47 AM on 04/27/2012

Peppermint and dryer sheets keep mosquitos away. Put the dryer sheets around the patios and doors and rub them on your skin. Peppermint you can spray on you. Also, don't eat bananas before going out. Certain foods attract them like nobody's business.

[Positive61]

10:38 AM on 04/27/2012

Dry sheets' smell is harmful to humans--cancer! I guess bugs are smarter than humans!

[mzrecycle]

11:55 AM on 04/27/2012

I use the unscented ones. THey work just as well.

[lex19999]

06:33 PM on 04/27/2012

Using napalm & agent orange does wonders to.

[boberrigan]

09:59 PM on 04/26/2012

If you live in a skeeter area....don't wear white. They're attracted to white and also the carbon dioxide you exhale will attract them. Be alert for West Nile virus cases in your area. I had West Nile fever a few years ago and you don't want it.

[jimtpat]

02:49 AM on 04/27/2012

That's the key: Holding your breath while mosquitoes are around between dusk and dawn.

[boberrigan]

12:25 PM on 04/27/2012

Never mind....just use bug spray.

[montanadan]

03:57 PM on 04/27/2012

Ironically, if you hold your breath too long, you turn white and they're attracted to that. What a world! What a world!