Local company declares war on mosquitoes

When one thinks of mosquito control, likely what comes to mind are buzzing trucks crawling down the street, drifting chemical some 300 feet.

But that's just one part of battling the pesky bugs, according to Vector Disease Control's Tim Nelson.

The company, which services the cities of Blytheville and Gosnell, sets out traps to get counts and learn the types of mosquitoes in a specific area. Occasionally, Vector will find a Culex quinquefasciatus -- the species that carries the West Nile Virus.

The local lab tests the mosquito for the disease and takes action to resolve the issue. In fact, last year, it discovered a West Nile Virus-carrying mosquito near the old Price Chopper, which neighbors a day care and sits just 100 feet from an elderly woman's home, Nelson pointed out.

Officials took the proper steps and avoided what could have been a fatality, he noted.

Pictured are mosquito larva.

"The adulticiding is the last thing you do in mosquito control," Nelson said. "Everybody thinks about mosquito control as adulticiding. We have an abatement program here. We do surveillance with traps -- types of mosquitoes, amounts of mosquitoes. We inspect ditches, all water pools, larvicide them with liquid larvicide, Altosid briquets, which is a type of larvicide also."

He added there is a larvicide for old tires, though he says it is best to get rid of them, if possible.

"When mosquitoes get out of hand to a point, then we bring in the aircraft spray to get it back to where we can handle it with the trucks and our normal larvicide," Nelson said.

Vector biologist Sabrina Nelson encouraged residents to take some preventive measures that could lower mosquito counts around their homes as well.

She said often when the company does service requests, it finds buckets with stagnant water or tarps with puddles that breed mosquitoes.

Unused bird baths, unkept swimming pools, low areas, ruts, gutters full of silt, overgrown areas and trash piles with containers can cause issues as well.

"Eliminate things that hold water," Sabrina Nelson said.

She said now would be a good time to inspect the yard for mosquito breeding items.

She suggested doing simple things like filling in a low area with dirt and drilling a hole in a tire swing and even a trash can.

"It's so easy to contain mosquitoes when they're in larva form," she said, urging citizens to simply dump out the bucket or call Vector to treat the ditch where one spots larva.

A bottle cap alone has the potential to breed several hundred mosquitos.

"Doing the routine check around their house will help tremendously," Tim Nelson added, noting gutters are often overlooked.

He said Vector provides a public service and the company is here to help.

"Some people will say: 'all you do is make them worse,'" he said. "In all actuality, the chemical does make them go into a feeding frenzy, and they will try to bite you. Give it 15 minutes, and it kills them. Then they're gone and it becomes more pleasant to be outside."

He encouraged those with any concerns to call the Vector office at 870-532-9102.

"The more information that comes in here from the people of the city, the better off we are," he said, adding residents may see a trouble spot the company didn't catch.

Nelson also noted he is able to pull up a map showing when a driver was where, how fast he was going and how much chemical was sprayed in a particular area.

Another concern from residents is having to pay the fee year-round. According to Blytheville City Councilman Stan Parks, the charge is divided into 12 months, rather than having to pay a larger amount during mosquito season.

Meanwhile, Nelson said having a mild winter doesn't necessarily mean mosquitos will be bad this season.

He pointed out eggs will lay dormant for many years.

The key to a mosquito outbreak is water, he said.

"Having a bad winter or not having a bad winter doesn't have a tremendous effect," Tim Nelson said. "It does have an effect on how much water we get or don't get. Then again, if we don't get water, even toward the end of the year, if we're not getting that much rain, there are places that can hold water that get stagnant and cause a disease problem if we're not careful, which we do keep up with. You could end up with something like West Nile or encephalitis or whatever from a mosquito that carries that because the water is laying there stagnant and causes a problem."

He added the area may not have the pesky mosquitoes during dry spells, but the lack of rain increases the risk of disease-carriers because of stagnant water.

For more information, Nelson encouraged residents to call the Vector office.

mbrasfield@blythevillecourier.com