City of Portsmouth, Virginia - Public Works

THE BUZZ		Volume 4, 5 (Week 20)
		May 19, 2005

Mosquito Activity (Scale from 0 to 5)

Mosquito activity is a 1 for most of the city. There are some localized areas with increased activity (2), mostly wooded areas around Rotunda Blvd, Craddock, and North Churchland.
Mosquito activity may continue to increase over the next week due to the recent rain.

Surveillance

Eleven CDC style light traps were set this week, a total of 1,391 mosquitoes were caught this week, up slightly for 1,165 last week. The average number of mosquitoes per trap was 127 this was up slightly from 117 last week. The average number mosquitoes caught per trap this is slightly skewed due to localized hot spots of activity. For the most part trap counts seem to be stabilizing.

Service Requests

We received 5 calls related to mosquitoes this week. Most were questions or reports of standing water.

Control

Staff continues to systematically inspect and treat potential mosquito breeding sites thought the city. This week mosquito staff removed 149 tires illegally dumped in the Glendale area of the city. Most of the tires were actively breeding Asian Tiger Mosquitoes. Removal of the tires is an example of the source reduction efforts.
Rain is in the forecast for late this week. Plans are in place to treat flooded areas early next week when treatments will be most effective.
Limited truck fogging is being conducted along wooded areas with the highest trap counts as weather conditions permit.

Federal Activity

The City of Portsmouth, Army Corps of Engineers, and Navy are coordinating mosquito activities for mutual benefit. Staffs are working together to find and treat mosquito-breeding habitats.
Army Corps had a contractor start weekly trapping mosquitoes and treating standing water on Craney Island. Data and mosquito activities will be made available on the web site at http://www.nao.usace.army.mil/mosquitoes/.
Navy will have contractor begin treating standing water on the Fuel Depot property as early as this weekend weather permitting.

Mosquito Trap Counts