Mosquitoes Making Life Miserable in Ohio
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
TOLEDO, Ohio - Maria Rodriguez-Winter has added another step to her morning walks this summer - spraying on mosquito repellent. "They're just really, really thick," she said.
Heavy rains across northern Ohio this summer left behind flooded yards and perfect breeding conditions for mosquitoes.
Cities are spraying pesticides more often and residents are stockpiling repellent. In Toledo, it's the worst infestation since 1995, said Lee Mitchell, a biologist who works with the city's mosquito eradication program.
"It's an embarrassment to us that they are this bad," he said. "This year it looks like we don't know what we're doing."
The blame, though, lies with the rain.
Storms dumped five inches of rain around the Toledo area in mid-June.
Since then, mosquitoes have swarmed neighborhoods. Traps that in past years attracted up to 20 female mosquitoes a night have been found with as many as 700 in recent weeks. "It's hard to believe until you go into someone' backyard," Mitchell said.
Mosquito complaints from residents of Fairlawn, an Akron suburb, are up this year, especially in low-lying neighborhoods, said John Sellars, the city's service director.
The city now is spraying twice a week instead of just once.
Spraying crews in Toledo are working weekends and spending on insecticide has nearly doubled this year, Mitchell said. "We've thrown everything we can at this problem," he said.
It's not just a problem in Ohio.
In Massachusetts, state health officials began aerial spraying this month to fight off the spread of eastern equine encephalitis by mosquitoes. Heavy rains this year increased the mosquito population.
Areas east of Cleveland that were swamped with up to 10 inches of rain at the end of July are now bracing for another wave of biting bugs.
Health officials are asking home owners to dump water out of any scrap tires, old swimming pools and bird baths.
"Those can become mosquito factories," said Ray Saporito, Ashtabula County's health commissioner.
Health officials also are watching closely to see if the mosquito boom will lead to more cases of West Nile virus, which is primarily a disease of birds and can be spread to people by infected mosquitoes.
Lake County officials have asked the state for aerial spraying and have increased their own spraying efforts. Mosquitoes were a problem this summer even before the flood, said Frank Kellogg, the environmental health director in Lake County.
"No matter what we do, we can't kill them all," he said.
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