Hello again!

As some of you know, I'm a reporter in the Tulsa County area and I cover the south and west areas of the county. I'm doing an enterprise story (meaning one with no time element or deadline) on how all the rain we've been getting has impacted the insect populations all around Green Country.

Every other news outlet (including my own) has written stories about how mosquitoes will be bad this year due to all of the rain, but I know enough about arthropods to know that when there's more water, there's more insects overall -- not just mosquitoes.

So I can be more informed going into the story, can any of you tell me what kinds of arthropods benefit from a moist environment? I'm reasonably sure that cockroaches, slugs, millipedes, centipedes, wood louses, and a few others thrive in conditions like these, but are there others?

Obviously, any information offered would be considered "not for attribution," so you wouldn't have to worry about being cited in any published material. I'm just doing what we call backgrounding -- so I know what to ask the experts about when I start making calls.

Further -- do you have any ideas about what sort of people I could interview on this topic? I know gardeners in Jenks, farmers in Bixby, people who work for the Tulsa City-County Health Department and I plan on calling the OSU University Extension Office because they have an office in midtown. Are there any other ideas?

And remember, this isn't just about gardening -- although I'm very interested in covering information gardeners can use. Think also about insects and other animals that could become a nuisance in houses, garages, sheds, yards, storage areas and any other places people have to use.

Thanks for your help.