Summer time is the perfect time to get out and play in the park.

But it may seem like your doing more swatting. swiping, and scratching more than ever before.

"The mosquitoes have been terrible," Okemos resident Cory Davis said. "It's the worse year I've seen in quite some time."

Seven-year-old Alana Craig said it hasn't cut in to her play time yet, but she's definitely noticed a difference.

"Last summer I had three or four mosquito bites," Craig said. "This summer I have nine."

"There are definitely swarms of mosquitoes out right now," MSU Entomologist Howard Russell said.

Russell said we can all blame the heavy rain we had a few weeks ago.

"The wet weather we had in June," Russell said. "It's paying a dividend now in terms of good crops, but it's also producing a lot of mosquitoes."

He said mosquitoes will breed in as little as two inches of standing water.

" In cans, in gutters, anywhere where there's water mosquitoes will produce generation after generation," he said.

You may be swatting at mosquitoes more than you care to this July fourth holiday, but there's good news. Health officials say it's more of a nuisance than a health risk.

There were 16 cases of the West Nile Virus in Michigan last year.

But the Ingham and Eaton counties health departments and Mid-Michigan District Health Departments say there are no reports of the virus this year.

"Nothing in terms of diseases," Russell said, "Just a lot of scratching and giving up blood."

The bites are frustrating for sure, but nothing a little calamine lotion can't cure.

"They Itch like mad," Craig said.

The health departments say they will continue to monitor the mosquito population for diseases and hope the public takes preventative measures too.