Columbus Public Health workers are all set to take on hordes of blood-sucking mosquitoes that spoil the summer season for outdoors lovers.

They hope to outflank mosquitoes by increasing the number of traps all over the city.

This year the health workers will trap mosquitoes at 81 locations setting about 40 traps every week.

Officials say that they are hopeful that setting traps in permanent locations will aid to track trends in behaviour of mosquitoes in a better way and will also determine where is further action needed.

Mosquito spraying will begin on Wednesday and the focus will be on city parks, said the Columbus Public Health spokesman Jose Rodriguez.

Most of the mosquito species found in Ohio are just an annoyance but a few are worrisome, the ones that that can transmit diseases. Last year, the Ohio Health Department reported 24 human cases of West Nile virus and three deaths in the state too.

Trapping and monitoring provides health departments and mosquito abatement districts an " early-warning system", according to Richard Gary, a state public health entomologist.

The budget for the tests is about $10,000.

The traps used by the Columbus Public Health are plastic buckets which are filled with a smelly liquid that attracts mosquitoes.

When the insects try to land, a suction motor traps them, said Scott Whittaker who is the vector-control program manager of the city. The agency also puts a few traps that make use of lights and dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) to attract mosquitoes.

Culex mosquitoes which carry West Nile will be trapped by both as said by Joseph Conlon who is a technical adviser for the American Mosquito Control Association.

Although mosquitoes carry various types of encephalitis, the latest concern is the chikungunya virus. This mosquito-borne illness is transmitted by the Asian tiger mosquito which is a black and white striped insect and an aggressive daytime biter.