BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) – As if the snowy winter hasn’t been enough of a nuisance, another pest could emerge when spring arrives.

Melting snow leaves standing water in swamps, pools and marshes, mosquitoes’ favorite breeding spots, said Louis Magnarelli, director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven.

“There’s going to be plenty of water in these areas for eggs to hatch and mosquitoes to develop out of these woodland pools,” he said.

Meteorologists caution that despite all the snow dumped on the region, total precipitation has not been unusual. Much of the snow has been fluffy and dry, said Henry Margusity, meteorologist at AccuWeather.com in State College, Pa. An inch of snow may have a tenth of an inch of liquid, he said.

“There’s not a lot of liquid content in that snow,” Margusity said.

Total precipitation has been the equivalent of 11.24 inches of rain, about 96 percent of the average, Margusity said.

But Magnarelli said melting late-season snow could create ideal conditions for mosquitoes, with some species hatching as early as April.

“The key thing here is how much water is going to be around in these swamps, woodland pools and marshes,” he said.

Scientists are particularly watching a mosquito called culex pipiens, the main carrier of West Nile virus. The species tends to thrive even in dry conditions. It breeds in catch basins and other areas that often hold water even when the weather is dry, Magnarelli said.

West Nile virus, first found in Connecticut in 1999, can be life threatening but generally poses little danger to healthy adults. Only one case was identified in Connecticut last year, and the resident was infected out of state, according to the state Department of Public Health.

A different species of mosquito is behind the rarer but more deadly Eastern equine encephalitis. Culiseta melanura thrives in the cedar marshes common near Stonington, on the state’s eastern shoreline, Magnarelli said. The species feeds only on birds, but the virus can spread to other species that feed on mammals, he said.

“There are some swamps that are wet all year round there are some other swamps that will dry up if it’s very hot and dry if there’s no rainfall,” he said. “If it dries up, then melanura would not do well; it’s dependent on having a lot of water.”