News

News from Around the Districts

Bay County Mosquito Control, Bay City, MI

Tom Putt - (989) 894-4555

The third quarter of 2016, which encompasses the bulk of the mosquito treatment season, started out dry, but ended wet with 4-7 inches of rain falling in four rain events that occurred from August 12-18. The western half of the county was hardest hit, but no area was spared. Needless to say, we saw a big spike in Aedes vexans, Aedes trivittatus, and Psorophora ferox. With daytime high temperatures in September averaging close to normal with cool evenings, complaint calls did not manifest and we were able to wrap up the season on September 27th without much fanfare. Clean-up and winterizing took place the next week.

Our second annual scrap tire drive was held August 20 where we recycled 483 tires as breeding habitats from the community.

Disease surveillance efforts continued through September. Four hundred six pools (or groups of mosquitoes) were assembled with two testing positive for West Nile Virus (WNV) – one in Williams Township and one in Monitor Township. These were mosquitoes that were collected in CDC traps, New Jersey light traps, or gravid traps. Two of the eleven Crows or Blue Jays tested this season were WNV-positive.

Midland County Mosquito Control

Carl Doud - (989) 832-8677

Midland County is very pleased to have received 88% support for our continued millage during the August 2016 primary election. We are approved for another four years of business as a result.

Bad news on the ongoing state forest drama. The Forest Stewardship Council, who do not reside in Midland County, do not pay taxes to support the mosquito control program, and whose children will not be subject to increased mosquito bites, have decided that MCMC will not be allowed to control adult mosquitoes on areas of state land near county residents. This outcome was not at all surprising, yet very disappointing. Next steps involve submitting an appeal to the FSC (not expected to result in a change of outcome) and work with the DNR to come up with an alternative arrangement.

After a dry and somewhat slow summer, we received a few rain events late in the season that kept us busy chasing Aedes vexans. The late rains caused us to extend the seasonal crew an extra week. Since then we have been wrapping up and getting equipment put away for the winter.

One of our seasonal technicians, Carl Bland, was recently honored by the Midland County Board of Commissioners. Carl was offered a significant amount of cash by a resident this season, which he was grateful for, but refused to accept. As he was working alone, it was his integrity that led him to do the right thing in accordance with County policy. This impressed his supervisors and the County officials so much that he was given the top honor among thirteen employees who received appreciation awards.

Saginaw County Mosquito Abatement Commission

Bill Stanuszek - (989) 755-5751

Another season is in the rear view, and the time to reflect is upon us. It was a great year in regards to mosquito nuisance; dry, warm (maybe even hot) conditions dominated much of the summer. This was quite a contrast and relief compared to the previous couple years of nuisance produced from wet, cool weather. Each season has its own unique weather which yields its own unique population of mosquitoes. Thankfully Zika vectoring mosquitoes are not a population present here in Michigan, however there was still quite a bit of Zika concern (and rightfully so given its impact from South America north into Florida) from the citizens of Saginaw County and the State.

Warm, dry weather is conducive to our endemic arbovirus amplification within mosquitoes and birds. Saginaw County’s West Nile virus presence characterized an average year as detected in both birds and mosquitoes; collections found 8 crows and 4 mosquito samples positive for West Nile. The 2016 season started with a very successful aerial treatment of woodland spring mosquitoes; then dry weather predominated until August; heavy localized rainfall produced floodwater nuisance in portions of the County with areas of biting activity continuing through September and into October. Operations came to an end on September 30th as we began another fiscal year and our technicians returned to college. It is a bit bothersome to have mosquitoes biting into October. What ever happened to our September frost?

Our Education Department is back working in local schools and already has 145 classroom presentations scheduled. The Education Department has added 2 new “Tablets” to the education hands on activities; the multiple choice quizzes, and games that will be put on these can be updated regularly. We have also been working on updating the display we use for public events.

Household scrap tire collection continues to be popular within the County. We offered two week long tire drives and also accepted tires at our facility from May 1 – August 31. We collected a total of 4,585 tires this summer. Program costs were partially funded through the State of Michigan’s Scrap Tire Cleanup Grant Program.

We are looking forward to the off-season where we look to incorporate all of what we learned this past season, and to do better in the next.

Tuscola County Mosquito Abatement

Kim Green - (989) 673-3748

This spring was extremely crazy for us. Not knowing whether or not our new garage was going to be completed by our beginning date had everyone on edge. But we were able to get all the odds and ends tied together for the beginning of our season and were finally able to move into our new garage.

Overall we had a very good season here in Tuscola County. The dry summer made for a rather easy season and kept the mosquito population down. The ten inches of rain we experienced throughout July and August kept us on our toes as calls began to come in. We were able to stay on top of things and ended up road side fogging until the last week in September.

This year we sent down 560 pools to be tested by Michigan State University. Four pools came back positive for West Nile Virus. They were located in Vassar, Millington, Denmark, and Kingston townships. We did test five corvids this summer that all tested negative for WNV.

As we end the season, we will begin the process of winterizing vehicles and equipment. We are also looking forward to 7F Training on October 24th and the MMCA this winter.

*****News from Around the Districts is published in the Skeeter Scanner. This is the MMCA quarterly news letter distributed to MMCA Members.