Taking the Bite

You’ve landscaped your yard to park-like perfection. You’ve manicured your lawn, furnished the patio with comfortable chairs, created the playground of your children’s dreams, and hung a hammock beneath the spreading maple.
Is it time to relax? Perhaps…until you hear the dreaded whine of mosquitoes.

The first big invasion is predicted for sometime in the second half of June. From then on, depending on temperatures and precipitation, it’s us-against-them until the fall freeze.

Mosquitoes are serious business, even in our area. Where once they ranked as a major annoyance, the advance of mosquito-borne illnesses into our region has made them a genuine health hazard to be treated with respect.

West Nile virus has been monitored in Minnesota and North Dakota for almost ten years. Though fairly rare, the danger is very real. Babies and children are at greatest risk, along with the elderly and people of all ages whose immune systems are compromised. Even pets can contract West Nile virus.

That has added urgency to the efforts of the cities and Cass County Vector Control to contain the mosquito population in the Fargo-Moorhead area. At season’s peak, both ground and aerial spraying may be employed when conditions are right and the numbers of mosquitoes captured in traps suggest that action is necessary.

But long before airplanes buzz overhead at dusk, Vector Control employees are prowling likely mosquito breeding grounds — swampy areas along rivers, damp ditches, dump yards and other areas where standing water invites them to lay their eggs. They are applying larvicides — chemicals that execute newly hatched mosquitoes before they take flight (and set out to raise their own generations of little buzzers).

Never forget that you are the first line of defense against mosquitoes invading your yard. Local governments in the metro area offer a variety of easy, cost-free tips to reduce the number of mosquitoes at their source by insuring that fewer eggs are laid and fewer larvae hatch. The secret is to eliminate places where water collects around your house and garden.

• Put away containers that collect water like tires, buckets, flower pots and children’s toys.
• Clean out clogged rain gutters.
• Change the water in bird baths and wading pools often.
• If the water in fountains or water gardens doesn’t flow freely, treat it with a nontoxic larvicide product regularly. Look for products containing Bacillus thuringiensis (BTI) or methoprene (an insect-growth regulator, or IGR) at hardware and home improvement stores.
• Fill in low spots and other drainage problem areas. Make sure that your sump pump discharge drains properly.
• Fill in hollow stumps that collect water.
• Keep grass and shrubs trimmed well, as they harbor adult mosquitoes.

If it’s too late to nip the mosquito population in the bud, and if joint Vector Control efforts have missed a horde or two in your vicinity, the metro-wide experts suggest two approaches:

• Fogging at dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are at their busiest. This can only eliminate the skeeters present when the fog floats, of course. Look for products with active ingredients permethrin and resmethrin. The EPA has found them safe for household use.
• Applying barrier sprays to shaded areas where mosquitoes rest. You can do this at any time of day. The products have lasting effects for up to several weeks. Recommended active ingredients include pyrethrins, deltamethrin, cyfluthrin, malathion and bifenthrin.

• Birds and bats do consume mosquitoes, but not enough for you to notice a difference in the mosquito population.
• Citronella plants have been shown to be ineffective, and citronella candles are only slightly better. The light from the flame can actually attract more mosquitoes than it repels.
• Electric bug zappers are not effective in reducing mosquito populations, and can kill great numbers of non-target insects such as moths.
• Mosquito-trapping devices are useful, especially when used with other prevention methods.