The Strange Reason There Are Fewer Bugs At These Minnesota State Parks
If you're looking to get out and enjoy the great outdoors before summer slips away on us and you don't want to turn into one big bug bite, here's some good news from the Minnesota DNR.
While just about all of us enjoy getting outside during our fleeting summer months here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, nobody enjoys getting all bitten up by Minnesota's state bird, I mean, mosquitoes, and other bugs, right?
Luckily there are a few of Minnesota's beautiful state parks where the mosquitoes and bugs aren't quite so bad-- and they're all in our neck of the woods, too. According to the Minnesota DNR, these six state parks are where you want to head if you're looking to avoid those blasted bugs:
Beaver Creek Valley State Park in Caledonia
Forestville Mystery Cave State Park in Forestville
Frontenac State Park in Frontenac
Great River Bluffs State Park in Winona
John A. Latsch State Park in Altura
Whitewater State Park, also in Altura
So what's up with these state parks not having mosquitoes? Well, first, that's not entirely true. While the DNR says they can't promise there won't be ANY mosquitoes, these state parks-- thanks to their location here in southeast Minnesota-- most likely have less.
What's up with that? Well, you can thank the glaciers that once covered the upper Midwest millions of years ago. When those glaciers last moved through, for some reason, they avoided what's now southeast Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin-- which is why we don't have any natural lakes in these parts.
But that's good news for having fewer mosquitoes. Because mosquitoes like stagnant warm water-- like lakes-- to reproduce. And, without any lakes, our environment isn't as attractive to those blasted bugs. As the DNR says, "these particular parks tend to have fewer biting insects because of their geologic and meteorologic conditions."
You'll still want to use some caution, though, the DNR says, but at least the mosquitoes shouldn't be quite as bad.
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