Mosquito fighters are spraying a bit early this year, thanks to a wet winter and recent warmer temperatures.
By BETH N. GRAY
Published April 8, 2003
They're not Humvees, but trucks carrying ULVs. Yet, like military units in Iraq, their preferred time to prowl is at night, and they are waging war - a war on mosquitoes.
The trucks and ULVs - or ultra-low-volume sprayers - were pressed into early service two weeks ago, said Dr. Guangye Hu, Hernando County's mosquito control director. The local mosquito battle usually doesn't begin until late April. But with a warm, wet winter and an early spring, the insects are already swarming.
Increased rains have offered up more mosquito breeding sites, said Al Gray, environmental health director for the Hernando County Health Department. Hu said a technician with the county's mosquito control program, through twice-a-week monitoring of 15 traps placed around the county, determined recently that it was time to begin spraying.
The ULVs spray into the air a fine mist of malathion or Aqua-Reslin. The chemicals remain in the air for about 20 minutes, and a mosquito needs only to fly into the mist to be killed, Hu said.
The trucks - the county has five of them - begin their onslaught about a half-hour before sunset and continue for four hours. In the past two years, the county has added a second spray shift - from 2 to 6 a.m. - because of the threat of West Nile virus, carried by several species of mosquitoes. The virus-spreading species are active primarily at night, Hu said.
Spraying generally continues into November, but last year's warm year-end temperatures and the growing concern about West Nile virus kept the machines at work into December.
Gray said eight birds - four crows, two blue jays, one grosbeak and one mourning dove - tested positive for the virus in Hernando last year. So did 20 horses, although 18 of them survived the central nervous system disorder.
Gray endorses vigilance in monitoring the virus' presence because it can be fatal to humans.
Meanwhile, the mosquito control program continues its daytime activities, which Hu says are more important than nighttime spraying.
The daytime measures include source reduction - draining standing water where possible - and spreading on other waters an insecticide that kills immature larvae before they reach the winged stage. Property owners may request spraying or other abatement aid by calling the program office at 754-4060.
As part of a public education effort, technicians will help property owners locate insect sources - usually standing water, and sometimes not much of it.
"A half-cup of water can have hundreds of mosquitoes," Hu said.
He said buckets - even toys that can collect small amounts of rainwater - should be removed from outdoors. Plant saucers and bird baths holding water for five to six days can become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, he said, and should be emptied regularly.
The county abatement program offers a couple of novel control aids: a species of mosquito-eating fish appropriate for water gardens and an oil that will spread across the surface of water and deny necessary oxygen to mosquito larvae.
All of the measures and aids are provided at no direct cost to the property owner.
The state increased its mosquito abatement allotment to Hernando County this year to $46,000, compared with $29,000 last year, Hu said. The county has earmarked $482,000 for mosquito control this year.
"This is a public health issue," he said, "so the county and state pays for the cost."
Dead birds can signal West Nile
As part of the effort to monitor West Nile virus, a Hernando County Health Department staffer will collect any wild bird that has recently died and is reported by the public.
"Recently" is crucial, said Al Gray, the Health Department's environmental health director, because the bird's heart tissue must be tested and cannot be in a state of decay for the laboratory analysis to be effective.
Anyone who finds a dead bird should put the fowl in a plastic bag and on ice, if the person is comfortable doing so. There is no threat of contracting the virus from the bird; it is only transmissible by a mosquito, Gray said.
A pickup may be arranged by calling the Health Department at 754-4072, ext. 102.
Dead birds may also be delivered to the Health Department office at 300 S Main St., Brooksville.
Horses showing confusion and stumbling should be examined by a veterinarian, who will draw blood for testing by the state Department of Agriculture, Gray said.
[Last modified April 8, 2003, 01:31:46]
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