May 31, 2007

• No rain was recorded in the city last week. The mosquito activity scale is at a 1. Trap counts increased in some places this week. Dry conditions are dominating the city. The dry conditions are killing more than mosquitoes, fish and other natural mosquito predators are being killed off. When it does rain mosquitoes will have the advantage, this creates the potential for a massive mosquito increase.

• The trapping schedule is off slightly this week due to the holiday on Monday. Data from 10 traps are not reported since the traps will not be collected until Friday morning.
• 5 CDC style traps were set this week, with a total of 803 mosquitoes caught, for an average of 161 per trap. The bulk of the mosquitoes trapped this week were at the Landfill trap; we will monitor these mosquitoes and treat as needed to minimize impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods. Currently most of the mosquitoes are not in the neighborhoods.
• 10 Omni-Directional Fay-Prince (OFP), used to trap tiger mosquitoes, caught 83 tiger mosquitoes for an average of 9 per trap. The Park Manor area of the city seems to be the local hot spot at this time.

• We had 5 service requests this week. Service requests normally increase after Memorial Day. Most of the calls were in the Park Manor area of the city.

• Spray crews truck fogged for adult mosquitoes around 800 acres this week.
• Mosquito control staff continue to systematically seek out known breeding sites and to treat any standing water were mosquitoes are breeding. Current efforts are being directed to finding and treating normally wet areas that are drying up creating isolated pockets of mosquito breeding.

• Our weekly surveillance efforts indicate tiger mosquito counts are increasing. Tiger mosquitoes 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.

• Army, Navy, and city staff are meeting, exchanging information, reviewing surveillance and control efforts, and conducting several site inspections as part of our joint mosquito control program.
• The Army Corps is posting its mosquito surveillance and control information on its web site http://www.nao.usace.army.mil/Projects/Craney/Craney Mosquito/Homepage.asp