With the recent wet weather you may find yourself busy swatting at pesky mosquitoes this fourth of July.  A warning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mosquitoes can do more than be a nuisance, they can also spread dangerous viruses.

Examples of viruses spread by mosquitoes:

• Chikungunya
• Dengue
• Eastern equine encephalitis
• Japanese encephalitis
• La Crosse encephalitis
• St. Louis encephalitis
• West Nile
• Yellow fever
• Zika

"The primary mosquito borne virus we are concerned about now would be West Nile Virus," says Roxanne Connelly with the CDC. “In recent years we’ve had transmission of Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika. Those do have the potential to occur again, but the primary one we’re concerned about now would be West Nile virus.”

So far in Georgia there have been no cases of West Nile but there are 10 cases in the United States. Nine cases have been reported this year in California and one in North Dakota.

“I think we’re probably seeing more that are coming into the US than we have in previous years mainly because of the way people move around and travel.”

To protect yourself use insect repellent: When used as directed, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellents are proven safe and effective, even for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Use an EPA-registered insect repellent with one of the following active ingredients:

DEET, Picaridin, IR3535, Oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE) or Para-menthane-diol (PMD). You can also wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants.

“The ones that should be worn are those that are EPA registered because at that point they’ve gone through review by EPA and they’ve been shown to be safe and effective.”

“Individual body chemistry plays a role in what mosquitoes are attracted to,” says Connelly. “It could be the amount of CO2 that’s associated with your body, the amount of lactic acid and the other type of things that we secrete.

“There’s about 150 mosquito species across the US and all of them have a little bit of a different preference for the type of odors they like, the type of blood they feed on. So some mosquitoes are going to be more attracted to humans and some are going to be more attracted to horses or dogs or birds and some, they’re just attracted to everything.”