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Mosquito abatement official updates council on trapping, source reduction and new species surveillance
Summary
County mosquito abatement staff presented an annual update to Toquerville City Council outlining source-reduction work, lab partnerships, cyanobacteria monitoring, and surveillance for the invasive Aedes aegypti; staff urged residents to report mosquito problems and said the program will respond to service calls.
A county mosquito abatement representative gave Toquerville City Council an update on mosquito control activities on May 21, stressing source reduction, trapping, and targeted treatments. The presenter said the program works with the state Department of Natural Resources and the state health department on monitoring and research, and provides laboratory services to partner agencies.
The presenter said the number-one tool is source reduction: "The number 1 best way to control mosquitoes is source reduction," he told the council. He described field projects that removed standing water from a problematic pond where traps once yielded roughly 2,500 mosquitoes per trap; after treatment and vegetation work the trap counts dropped to a few dozen in the same location.
Staff also described surveillance and research efforts. They said the agency has been testing for cyanobacteria in stagnant side pools and assisting the state health department with tick drags and tick identification. Abatement staff described detection of the invasive Aedes aegypti in other parts of the county (Springdale, St. George) but said the species had not been found in Toquerville.
The presenter explained tools used by the program: briquette larvicides that slowly release active ingredient to kill larvae; bacterial larvicides; insect growth regulators targeted at mosquito larvae; and surfactant applications to break surface tension and drown larvae. He described a small misting device the agency developed to deliver larvicide into cryptic, hard-to-access containers such as plant pots. He also explained the program—s preference to do spot fogging with backpack units rather than drive trucks for broad fogging.
The presenter said the county traps adult mosquitoes to monitor species and disease risk; counts in Toquerville were low in the most recent year (in the hundreds for the year), but residents should call the abatement program to report problems so staff can investigate.
Residents in the public forum asked unrelated budget and legal questions; the abatement presenter left informational flyers for the council and the public.
