May 24, 2007

• The city received 0.97 in of rain last week. The mosquito activity scale is at a 1. Trap counts increased slightly last week. The forecasted warmer temperatures along with last week’s rain may bring about an increase in mosquito activity.

• 5 CDC style traps were set this week, with a total of 634 mosquitoes caught, for an average of 127 per trap.
• New for this year we will be setting a different type of mosquito trap (Omin-Directional Fay-Prince. OFP) to more accurately measure Tiger Mosquito populations in the city. This week we set 20 Omni-directional Fay-Prince (OFP) traps, we caught a total of 94 Asian Tiger Mosquitoes caught, for an average of 4.7 per trap. Tiger Mosquito counts appear on the map as blue circles.
• Very few roadside ditches are holding water at this time. However, artificial containers (buckets, tarps, bird bathes, clogged rain gutters, etc.) continue to be a problem, as trap counts have shown increased numbers of container breeding mosquitoes this week.

• We had no service requests this week.
• Service requests remain low, with only 6 calls so far this 2007 season. Most calls are in regard to standing water or clogged ditches that have potential to breed mosquitoes.

• Spray crews truck fogged for adult mosquitoes a total of 1625.4 acres this week.
• Mosquito control staff continue to systematically seek out known breeding sites and to treat any standing water were mosquitoes are breeding.

• “They’re back”, as the saying goes. Asian tiger mosquitoes are back, and we are seeing their numbers increase in our weekly surveillance efforts. These are the little black and white striped mosquitoes that bite you below the knees while you are out working in your yard. These mosquitoes are daytime biters, and are not very active at night. This means that truck fogging for them does little or nothing to reduce their numbers. These mosquitoes only breed in artificial containers, so keeping your yard free of any containers that hold water is key to keeping your yard free of these sneaky biters. We need your help to reduce their numbers. Not only does it help us, you and your neighbors benefit the most.