Drought conditions have kept local mosquito populations at bay for the past few months, but Steve Pavlovich said that will change as soon as the parish has a long, hard rain.
Pavlovich, with Mosquito Control Services, said that cold winter months and drought conditions have kept more aggressive types of mosquitoes from hatching, allowing less aggressive types to increase in numbers.
The more aggressive strains live in flood water areas and woodlands. The drought has dried up standing water in these areas, causing severe declines in the mosquitoes that live there. But that hasn’t kept the surviving mosquitoes from continuing to lay eggs.
The eggs are accumulating in ditches and holes just waiting for enough water to hatch. And that’s not all — they can live for up to five years before hatching.
“What could happen is because we’ve got drought conditions…adult mosquitoes may have laid eggs in some of the woodland pools and depressions in the ground,” Pavlovich said. “If we get a rain event that’s substantial enough and that water stays in those pockets for more than five to seven days, we have the potential to have a big hatching and have a big brood of more aggressive mosquitoes.
“This type is more aggressive because they are stronger flyers – they can fly further than other types and can fly in stronger wind conditions – so they have the ability to be more aggressive when going after a human or whatever the blood meal may be.”
Pavlovich and the Mosquito Control team are working constantly to keep current populations down and to kill eggs that may be on the ground.
“We’ve been hitting them with control measures,” he said. “We’ve been able to get on top of them and further reduce the mosquito population.”
The team is spraying larvicide in woods, ditches and catch basins to kill young mosquitoes during the day. They do land raids, which involve a person going to specific locations in the parish and counting how many mosquitoes land on them in a particular period of time. They are also performing surveillance and trapping, sending samples in for testing for any diseases local mosquitoes may be carrying.
So far, Pavlovich said that all testing has come back negative.
While this more-aggressive type of mosquito is still suffering from the dry, hot weather, another type is flourishing in it.
Mosquitoes that live in permanent or semi-permanent water sources, such as septic ditches, containers that people leave in their yards, bird baths and more are benefiting from the lack of rain because their breeding grounds are not being flushed out.
“The more drought conditions we have, the more organic material that concentrates in these permanent water sites and we tend to have a higher number of permanent water mosquitoes,” Pavlovich said. “It’s a two-edged sword. Right now numbers aren’t that high…but as we continue to be in a drought, we’ll have higher populations as stagnant water doesn’t get flushed out by period rains.”
Mosquito Control is also taking many steps to control this population, including nighttime truck applications where they drive around neighborhoods and spray for the bugs. They also treat common gathering areas, such as parks and ball fields, with repellent and insecticide.
“Even though mosquito populations are low right now, we want people to know that water tends to stagnate around their homes because of the drought conditions,” Pavlovich said. “These become our primary concern and are the primary breeding grounds. Even something small holding water could be a breeding ground.
“We ask people to be diligent in helping us to help them by making sure things aren’t holding water around their yards.”
Residents who have stagnant ornamental pools or ponds on their property can obtain mosquito fish from the company. A 2-inch-long adult female fish can eat up to 250 mosquito larvae per day, Pavlovich said. Call (985)785-9757 to request mosquito fish for your pond or pool.
Pavlovich said that residents should also be careful when going outside during peak mosquito times, beginning at dusk and lasting about two hours after. He suggested wearing repellent and keeping homes closed up, including using screens and having doors and windows properly fitted.
Be the first to comment