WNV has been reported in Georgia for the first time of the year. “These cases reinforce the need for all of us to be vigilant in applying preventive measures to help control mosquito breeding” Exclaimed Chris Hutcheson, with the Center of Environmental Health. If you are concerned about west Nile virus and mosquitoes consider the Bug Busters USA mosquito control program for your family.
Posts Tagged ‘Mosquito Pest Control Services’
WNV has been reported in Georgia
Wednesday, August 1st, 2012
EPA Regulations Won’t Cause Problems for Huntsville’s Mosquito Control
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012EPA Regulations Won’t Cause Problems for Huntsville’s Mosquito Control
HUNTSVILLE, AL – State and federal agencies have changed the regulations for mosquito control, but Huntsville officials don’t expect them to bug you this summer.
The new regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management require a lot more documentation and testing of areas to make sure the treatments are necessary and killing mosquitoes, said Cheryl Edge Clay, public health environmentalist who works with the city’s Vector Control.
She said the new regulations went into effect in October and won’t interrupt any services for city residents. The regulations required a permit by April 30 for cities that spray over 5,400 acres a year; Vector Control treats more than 128,000 acres in the city.
Richard Grace, the Madison County engineer, said county commissioners are aware of the new regulations from t regulations and making sure they comply. Each county commissioner takes care of his district’s needs for mosquito control outside the city, Grace said.
Clay had to put together a detailed pesticide discharge management plan that describes mosquito problems and what, if any, impact the spraying would have on the environment.
“The biggest change is, there will be a lot more documentation, requirement of data and followup inspections,” Clay said. “This summer we don’t expect to interrupt services with the new monitoring program. Residents can expect the same quality service as we’ve had in the past.
“We may not spray every Monday or Tuesday night. We’re going to spray where we can be most effective.”
Clay said Vector Control will begin using its mosquito fogging trucks — carrying a truck-mounted sprayer that shoots ultra low volume mist, she said — the first week of June. Currently, Vector Control is targeting the mosquitos larvae in swamps and other areas they are known to habitat with biological larvacide, which is much more environmentally friendly.
Clay says the city uses a non-toxic, low concentration chemical when it sprays at night. It also uses a non-toxic spray for the biological larvacide and even uses tiny mosquito fish, which they stock in ditches where mosquitoes are a problem.
Vector Control is asking beekeepers to call the office so the trucks can avoid spraying in their areas.
Clay said it’s not possible to visit every home in the city, so it helps if the public can to minimize areas that hold stagnant water. “Even a teaspoon of water can breed mosquitos,” Clay said.
For more information, go to www.mosquito.org/control.
The city’s Vector Control deals with mosquito control and encourages all residents to minimize areas that can hold stagnant water, such as old tires, bird baths, flower pots, pet water bowls, and poorly maintained fountains, gutters, and swimming pools. If you are a beekeeper in or near Huntsville, call 256-883-5872 so your area can be avoided until after sunset during fogging season.
ABCNews.com: Busy Tick Season Expected Thanks to Mild Winter and Early Spring
Friday, April 13th, 2012ABCNews.com: Busy Tick Season Expected Thanks to Mild Winter and Early Spring
This year’s unusually mild winter and the early onset of warm temperatures comes with a nasty downside — an explosion of ticks just waiting for a fresh, warm-blood meal.
“It’s going to be a really bad season, and it’s been almost the perfect storm,” said David Roth, co-chairman of the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance, a newly formed group of organizations that promote advocacy and awareness of Lyme disease and other conditions caused by ticks. “Part of it is the warmth and the fact that normally, they’re just coming out at this time of year, but they’ve been out now for a while, and so have people.”
There are a number of species of ticks, but perhaps the most well known is the deer tick, which carries the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
Roth, now 45, became intimately acquainted with Lyme disease in 2010, when he started to experience a variety of what he called “mysterious” symptoms.
For months, doctors couldn’t diagnose him, since Lyme disease can affect multiple body systems, and symptoms often mimic those of other diseases. He didn’t develop the telltale round, red rash that most people recognize as a hallmark of the disease. Many people don’t get that rash.
“Different people can be impacted differently,” Roth said. “My symptoms were more neurological.” He had difficulty sleeping and breathing, and experienced night sweats, tremors and more. Those symptoms, he said, still affect him two years later.
According to the American Lyme Disease Foundation, the signs of Lyme disease can vary but often include the red rash that may appear about one or two weeks after a tick bite around the site of the bite, fever, joint pain, fatigue and chills. As the bacteria continue to invade the body, people may experience a stiff neck, tingling and severe headaches.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in 2010, about 22,000 cases of Lyme disease and 8,000 more probable cases were reported nationwide.
While Lyme disease is the most common tickborne disease, ticks can also transmit diseases such as babesiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia.
There has been a lot of debate over certain aspects of Lyme disease, including diagnosis and treatment. Another controversial point has been whether chronic Lyme disease exists. Despite the debate, there is agreement over the need to prevent tickborne diseases. Ticks often carry more than one disease, so people may end up getting co-infections from a single bite.
“We anticipate that this is going to be a very buggy summer, and infectious disease doctors are prepared to see an increase in people with tick-related illnesses,” said Dr. William Schaffner, director of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
No matter what species of tick is involved, preventive measures will be the same.
“Use tick repellent containing Deet, and use it regularly — that includes mowing lawns or working around the house, not just going on a hike in the woods,” Schaffner said.
People should also check each other and themselves after being outside. They should carefully inspect the back, hair, groin and other areas.
“If you can remove a tick promptly, it reduces the risk of infection,” he said. “It takes a while for a tick to feed and regurgiate the disease-causing organism into the body.”
When removing ticks from themselves or pets, people should grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible and pull back without jerking.
Also, Schaffner said people should see a health care provider if they have been out in wooded areas and are experiencing an illness characterized by fever, and be sure to let the provider know they were outdoors, since ticks could bite and fall off without a person ever knowing.
Roth knows from experience how debilitating Lyme disease can be, and emphasized that prevention — and early diagnosis — were critical.
“People don’t get diagnosed until it’s too late,” he said.
Mosquito Control
Friday, April 6th, 2012Bug Busters USA offers the following advice on keeping mosquitoes out of homes:
- Eliminate potential mosquito breading grounds like birdbaths and baby pools by changing the water at least once per week.
- Remove excess vegetation around any standing water sources that cannot be changed, dumped or removed.
- Check your screens for any holes to keep them out of your house.
To learn more about mosquito-transmitted diseases, please visit www.bugbustersusa.com
Nashville Health Department Monitors Early Mosquitoes
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012Tennessean.com: Nashville Health Department Monitors Early Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes have arrived in Middle Tennessee earlier than they usually do, according to the Metro Health Department.
Blame the above average temperatures and rain.
The department is monitoring areas of standing water in Davidson County looking for mosquito larvae and applying a granular larvicide to kill larvae.
To reduce the mosquito population, residents should empty standing water in flower pots, buckets, plastic covers, toys or any other container that may collect water. Change the water in birdbaths, fountains, wading pools and rain barrels at least once a week if not more often.
- Andy Humbles
The Tennessean
Malaria No More ~ “Netman” Comic for All Ages!
Friday, January 6th, 2012Malaria No More Comic for All Ages!
Malaria No More is determined to end malaria deaths in Africa by 2015. Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease and recent progress shows that malaria’s days are numbered — but we need your help. Together, we can make malaria no more.
North Carolina Mosquito Control Program
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011ABC News: N.C. Girl Dead From Suspected Mosquito-Related Virus
An 8-year-old North Carolina girl died this week from encephalitis, after she was bitten by a mosquito likely carrying LaCrosse virus. Her death and the hospitalization of her younger brother are the latest evidence that a wet spring and a hot, wet summer have boosted the insects’ population and power to imperil public health.
Health officials on Friday awaited results of lab tests to confirm the underlying cause of the brain inflammation that proved fatal to the Henderson County, N.C., child. The youngster, whose name was being withheld, died Wednesday at Mission Hospital in Asheville, in the mountains of western North Carolina. The LaCrosse virus, which travels from the bloodstream into the brain, can cause headaches, fever, nausea, vomiting and weakness. It can only be spread to people through the bite of an infected mosquito. It cannot be spread from person to person.
“North Carolina is one of the areas where LaCrosse virus is endemic, so having them report cases is not uncommon,” J. Erin Staples, a medical epidemiologist at a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colo., said Friday. “LaCrosse disease is described more often in children, likely due to the interaction between children and the tree-hole breeding mosquitoes that carry the virus.”
As of Aug. 30, there were 22 confirmed and probable LaCrosse illnesses reported to the CDC. The CDC tally consisted of four cases from North Carolina, along with others from Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Mosquito surveillance that began in late spring in such states as Connecticut has shown an explosion in the numbers of mosquitoes caught in traps. As a result of this banner year for the buzzing biters, entomologists and health agencies have repeatedly reminded Americans to use insect repellants and avoid being outside at dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are likeliest to turn to people for their blood meals. They also advise emptying standing water that mosquitoes use as breeding grounds, a particular risk in many states following the flooding from Hurricane Irene. Screened windows and doors can put more distance between mosquitoes and vulnerable skin.
Melting of the heavy winter snowfall, Mississippi River flooding and high waters from Hurricane Irene can be blamed for some of this year’s profusion of “nuisance mosquitoes,” although they’re not the culprits in potentially fatal mosquito-linked diseases, Staples said. She and her colleagues worry more about the high heat of summer, which boosts the population of mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus. Cases peak in late August and early September, Staples said. The virus first appeared in this country in 1999.
As of Aug. 30, 21 states had reported a total of 104 human West Nile cases to the CDC; four of those cases were fatal. The tally included 65 cases that spread to the nervous system. Patients became ill between March and August.
West Nile symptoms include high fever, headache, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, vision loss, numbness and paralysis. When the virus invades the nervous system, it can produce one of three conditions: meningitis, which is an inflammation of the membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord; encephalitis, which killed the North Carolina girl; or a type of spinal cord paralysis that can suddenly strike breathing muscles or muscles of the arms and legs.
Reported West Nile infections represent just a fraction of cases because many never get confirmed, said Roger Nasci, a research entomologist at the CDC’s Arboviral Diseases Branch in Fort Collins. “For every person diagnosed with meningitis or encephalitis with West Nile, there’s approximately 140 people infected. The vast majority will be asymptomatic,” he said.
West Nile, carried by Culex pipiens and Culex restuans mosquitoes, can produce fever and neurological problems without causing brain inflammation. Often, the symptoms are so vague that doctors will just prescribe fever reducers like acetaminophen, without seeing the need to perform blood tests that could detect the virus. Nasci estimated that doctors diagnose only 3 percent to 5 percent of the West Nile cases that cause symptoms short of meningitis, encephalitis and muscle weakness.
The most devastating of the mosquito-linked illnesses is Eastern equine encephalitis, which is rare, but fatal in about a third of cases. There is no treatment. Survivors often have brain damage. EEE is carried by Culiseta melanura mosquitoes, which live in marshes, swamps and other bodies of still water. So far, New York has reported the only human case for 2011. Seven other states have detected the disease in mosquitoes, birds and other animals.
As of Aug. 30, Arkansas reported a probable human case of St. Louis encephalitis, typically found in Eastern and Central states, and most dangerous to older patients. Florida and Nevada have detected it in insects and animals, the CDC’s latest tally showed.
Voice of America: Scientists Target Mosquito-Borne Illnesses
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011Asian Tiger Mosquito Facts
Friday, August 26th, 2011The Asian Tiger Mosquito (also called Aedes albopictus) was brought to the United States during the 1980′s in used truck tires shipped from Japan. When the tires were moved from state to state, the Asian Tiger Mosquito spread. Now it is found in much of the eastern United States, including North Carolina.
Biology of the Asian
The life of a Tiger Mosquito has four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Larva and pupa are always found in water. Like other mosquitoes, the female Asian Tiger Mosquito needs blood to produce eggs. The Tiger Mosquito eill bite many tiypes of animals, including people. It likes to bite in the daytime, mostly in early morning or late afternoon. The bite is no worse than that of other mosquitoes, but large numbers of Tiger Mosquitoes can be a problem around home or work.
The Asian Tiger Mosquito lays its eggs inside containers that will hold water. These can be man-made containers such as tires, tin cans, buckets, bird baths, and clogged gutters, or they can be natural containers such as holes in trees or rocks. The Tiger Mosquito can be a problem around homes or in the woods because of many places it can breed. Eggs are not harmed by dry or cold weather. When flooded with water during summer, the eggs hatch. Even in a small container there can be hundreds of larvae. During warm weather, it may take only a week for the Tiger mosquito to grow from egg to adult. The adult Tiger Mosquito does not fly far, so it is most likely to be found close to its breeding place. In Southeastern North Carolina Asian Tiger Mosquitoes can be found around the house from May through October. The peak months for this mosquito are July and August.
Are spray trucks useful against the Tiger Mosquito? Mosquito spray trucks or Ultra Low Volume (ULV) cold foggers are designed to work in the evenings when temperatures are cooler. The Asian Tiger Mosquito prefers to fly during daylight hours. Ultimately the best control strategy to battle the Tiger Mosquito is to “Tip and Toss” all the containers holding water around the house. Removing the Larva can dramatically reduce the adult Asian Tiger Mosquito population around the house.
What does the Asian Tiger Mosquito look like?
The adult Tiger Mosquito is only about 1/8 inch long. It is black with white stripes on its legs and body. There is a single white stripe down the center of its head and back. These stripes give it the name “Tiger” Mosquito.
Problems caused by the Asian Tiger Mosquito. Overseas, the Asian Tiger Mosquito spreads disease, and it may spread diseases such as West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis in the U.S.
Personal Protection
Apply DEET-containing insect repellants according to the label directions.
Avoid the outdoors when mosquitoes are most active, from dusk to dawn.
Wear light-colored garments that cover your arms and legs, especially when you have to be outside between dusk and dawn.
Other Interesting Facts
One Tiger Mosquito can bite up to ten times trying to complete its hunt for a blood meal.
There are 45 (forty-five) different types of mosquitoes in Pender County.
Rooting house plants inside can produce Asian Tiger Mosquito larval habitat inside your house.
One female mosquito can lay up to 500 eggs in its lifetime.
The average life expenctancy of an adult mosquito is about 3 weeks.
Some mosquitoes can have as many as 12 generations per year.
With a Little Genetic Reprogramming, Blood-Sucking Can Be Deadly for Mosquitoes
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011With a Little Genetic Reprogramming, Blood-Sucking Can Be Deadly for Mosquitoes
What’s the News: Biochemists at the University of Arizona have found a promising new way to fight disease-carrying mosquitoes. In their research project, published in the journal PNAS, the scientists blocked mosquitoes’ ability to digest blood, making blood-sucking deadly to the winged pests. This technique could someday be used alongside other strategies to battle mosquitoes, like repellents and traps.
How the Heck:
- Mosquitoes, like many other insects, draw most of their nutrients from nectar. But when it comes time to produce eggs, female mosquitoes require large amounts of protein, which they get from blood. So, Roger Miesfeld and his research team decided to see what would happen if they blocked a mosquito’s ability to digest blood.
- The researchers focused on a protein complex called coatomer protein 1, or COPI, which is made up of several subunits that cells use to secrete gut enzymes that break down blood proteins. When a mosquito draws blood, cells lining its gut package enzymes in small droplets called vesicles, and release the packages into the gut.
- Using a technique called RNAi, the researchers shutdown individual COPI subunits in about 5,000 mosquitoes. Surprisingly, more than 90 percent of the yellow fever mosquitoes died within 48 hours of blood feeding. “When she does [feed], all hell starts breaking loose, biochemically and anatomically speaking,” Miesfeld said in a prepared statement.
- The researchers think that the removal of a COPI subunit makes the whole secretion process defective—It causes the cells lining a mosquito’s gut to fall apart, allowing blood to seep into its body.
What’s the Context:
- There are many techniques scientists have used to kill mosquitoes. Recently, a study in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene showed that a cheap deworming pill used against river blindness is temporarily effective for battling the spread of malaria, too. Mosquitoes that bite people who have taken the drug ultimately die.
- Researchers are also looking at ways to prevent mosquitoes from biting people. Earlier this year, scientists found a possible new mosquito repellent: a molecule that overloads a mosquito’s sense of smell.
- Other scientists want to use mosquitoes’ sense of smell to draw them into traps. The lure? Smelly socks.
The Future Holds: Miesfeld says that the research could be used in conjunction with other mosquito-fighting techniques, if they can develop a small molecule that works in place of the injected RNAi. Scientists could douse mosquito nets with the molecule to create an effective mosquito-specific insecticide, or place it in a pill for people to swallow (as with the deworming pill above). Though, Miesfeld notes that genetic changes would eventually make mosquitoes immune to the molecule.
