VOL. VIII NUMBER 3 October, 1996
1996 Summer Round Up - "When It Rains It Pours"
Although the summer has come and gone, most counties are still busy doing larvicides. A legacy of a wet season which had brought abnormally high counts of Culex mosquitoes, persistent populations of Ae. vexans with unusual activity from spring species occurring throughout the summer month as Ae. sticticus, Ae. canadensis, Ae. stimulans and all of the Psorophora species common to New Jersey kept showing up.
Almost all counties reported abnormally high rainfalls for the summer of "96" with the same brief reprieve from the deluge in the month of August with the exceptions of Bergen County reporting lower than normal rainfall or Monmouth County which reported higher rainfall in the western half of the county and lower in the eastern half.
Individual county reports are as follows with every county that is active in mosquito control being represented:
Dana Chort, Biologist, Atlantic County Mosquito Control
REGIONAL ROUND-UP:
Maryland: Cy Lesser reports that Maryland had "plenty of rain for the year, July average is 4 inches, this year they had 12 inches, and continued well above average all summer.
Salt marsh Aedes mosquitoes way down, but large populations of Aedes vexans, Ae. atlanticus, Ps. ferox and Ps. ciliata. Record collections of Cs. melanura from cypress swamps. Cx. salinarius and An. crucians/bradleyi in extreme numbers."
Under disease surveillance, Maryland "tested 9,786 mosquitoes (primarily Cs. melanura and Ae. sollicitans), assayed by PCR in 323 pools resulted in 2 positive pools, 1 Ae. sollicitans on July 23 and 1 Cs. melanura on September 4. Both from the same trap location near Pocomoke City. The incidence of positives much lower then expected given the large collections of Cs. melanura and virus activity reported from New York and New England. Used octenol as an attractant this year instead of dry ice (CO2). Collections were probably a little smaller with octenol, but it had many logistical advantages. There were no horse or human cases but on Oct. 10 there were 5 Emu deaths out of a flock of 8 birds with confirmed EEE."
Under airspray acivities Cy reports "they purchased an Aztec this year to replace contract service. It was a good year to do so as they've treated 276,579 acres so far this season in response to large mosquito populations. Unfortunatly, since most mosquitoes were non-salt marsh breeders, we did relatively little larvicide and relied heavily on adulticide with Dibrom concentrate. Our aircraft has an Ag-Nav GPS system to direct spray missions. I would never go back to a non-GPS equipped aircraft, the GPS makes possible very accurate application."
Delaware: Roger Wolfe from Delaware Mosquito Control submitted the following report: "Not unlike the rest of the region, the wet spring and summer kept the Delaware Mosquito Control Section quite active this year. Chronic woodland pools, typical of Ae. canadensis habitat kept right on producing mosquitoes after the spring season. Quite unusual for this area was that our salt marsh species didn't show up in high numbers until mid-August. Light trap collections indicated higher than normal populations of Ae. vexans and canadensis, Anopheles, Culex and Psorophora. Resting boxes also revealed high numbers of Anopheles and Cs. melanura.
As was expected with heavy precipitation and high mosquito numbers, our sentinel flocks indicated an above normal presence of EEE virus. On one instance, six of our twelve flocks had virus present. Also, four mosquito pools throughout the summer had the virus present. We tried to keep on top of the situation with continuous monitoring, and frequent larviciding and adulticiding, but it finally caught up with us. On 18 September a horse in Sussex County was confirmed with EEE and had to be euthanised. We responded by ground fogging and aerial adulticiding almost 4,000 acres in that location.
Our water management projects have proceeded slower than anticipated, primarily due to equipment overhauls. We have two major projects going on now: a 160-acre OMWM project in the beach resort area of Fenwick Island which has required considerable negotiations with landowners, and an OMWM/wetland restoration project on a 2000-acre tract of salt marsh in the 13,500 acre Milford Neck Focus Area of the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture. This area was designated under the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP). The project will be ongoing for several years and has already received significant interest and financial support from the USFWS, the Nature Conservancy and Ducks Unlimited. More will be reported on that later.
Roger also makes the following announcement: The Delaware Mosquito Control Section, Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and Maryland Mosquito Control Section, Dept. of Agriculture would like to invite everyone to the 22nd annual meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Mosquito Control Association to be held March 12-14, 1997, at the Sheraton Inn and Conference Center in Dover, Delaware. This will be the first time that the MAMCA meeting has ever been held in Delaware and is sure to be a success. With Delaware on the Mason-Dixon line, this is an excellent opportunity for the north and south to "meet again" and have a friendly exchange of ideas and experiences.
"The First State" (so named because Delaware was the first state to ratify the constitution in 1787) boasts such attractions as the DuPont estate/museums of Winterthur and Hagley, Dover Downs harness racing and NASCAR speedway (now with sot machines!), the Dover Air Force Base and Museum (open and free to the public), miles of Atlantic coast beaches and of course, tax-free shopping.
Room rates at the Dover Sheraton are $72.00 +8% hotel tax per night (less expensive hotels are within a short driving distance). A tentative agenda should be available soon.
For more details contact Roger Wolfe, Delaware Mosquito Control Section, P.O.Box 224, Milford, DE 19963, phone: (302)422-1512, fax: (302)422-1514.
Connecticut: Following are excerpts from Paul Capotosto's report on the "EEE Crises in Connecticut in 1996".
The State of Connecticut eliminated the salt marsh mosquito control program on June 30, 1993. Today, only four shoreline communities were doing salt marsh mosquito control. None of these towns are in southeastern Connecticut where the EEE virus was confirmed.
On Thursday, September 5, 1996, Connecticut receives preliminary information from Rhode Island regarding the presence of EEE in mosquito populations in Westerly, RI. The sites of mosquito trapping were on the Pawcatuck River adjacent to the Town of Stonington and North Stonington. Some trap locations were as close as 100 yards. Mosquitoes testing positive for EEE are Aedes vexans. The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) began mosquito trapping in North Stonington and Voluntown in areas of previous horse deaths adjacent to Red Maple and Cedar swamps.
A meeting was called on Friday, September 6, 1996 with the Department of Health (DPH), the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and the CAES officials to discuss the scope of the EEE presence. It was decided that the DPH would handle all calls about the EEE virus, the DEP (Paul Capotosto) would handle all aspects of ground and aerial ULV spraying and the insecticide used and the CAES (John Anderson and Ted Andreadis) would handle the mosquito testing with live traps and send them to Yale for confirmation. All media request would be directed to the DPH. DPH (Paul Schur & Jim Hadler) and DEP (Paul Capotosto) met with Stonington Officials at 4:00 pm to discuss the disease and ground spraying.
Paul Capotosto, DEP Wildlife Division - Wetlands Restoration Biologist will make arrangement with local town officials to start ground ULV spraying of Stonington and North Stonington as soon as possible. The Wetlands Restoration Unit was order to pull out the DPH two ULV sprayers which were mothballed and start them up. Also, on Friday, insecticide was ordered. Four five-gallon pails of Scourge 4+12 were shipped next day UPS.
On Monday, Sept. 9, 1996, after meeting with the town first selectman and discussing the area to be sprayed, the DEP WRU sprayed the southeastern portion of Stonington with the two state vehicles. During this spraying a public meeting was held in North Stonington to discuss disease and the spraying. Both communities adjusted their school hours to start one hour later in the morning and no outdoor recess. Also, all playing field and night activities stop after 5:30 pm. The CAES confirmed that mosquitoes trapped in Stonington came back positive for EEE; Cs. melanura and Cx. pipiens.
From that day on mosquito ground spraying was done in Stonington and North Stonington in the evenings over a two week period with more then 293 miles of ground ULV completed. After two nights of the state WRU doing the spraying, a private contractor was hired, Integrated Mosquito Control out of Madison (IMC), to do the ground ULV spraying.
On Friday, Sept. 20, 1996, Governor Roland with the DPH, DEP and CAES held a news conference to discuss the fact that the salt marsh mosquito Ae. sollicitans tested positive in the towns of Stonington near the Barn Island Wildlife Management Area and Old Lyme near the Great Island Wildlife Management Area. The DEP will start an immediate ground ULV of Old Lyme and Stonington. Aerial spraying will start as soon as the contractor could arrange it. The ground spraying was done by the Non-Tox Company based in New Haven. Non-Tox sprayed 91 miles of Old Lyme in three nights. Other mosquitoes that were testing positive were; Ae. cantator and Cq. perturbans.
At 5:00 pm, Sept. 22, aerial spraying was begun using Scourge from two planes from DufloSpray Chemical Company. Six thousand acres were sprayed in Old Lyme and Stonington. Two days later nine thousand more acres were sprayed which included the town of North Stonington. The Duflo Company did a great job and the mosquito population counts were quite low the next test results.
The town of Groton was ground ULV on Wednesday by IMC, 86 miles of ground ULV was completed.
After Thursday, Sept. 24, 1996, mosquito trapping results were testing negative from all testing areas. The CAES expanded the test range and the mosquito pools were still negative. I could relax for a little bit because no ground spraying was being done. On Monday Sept. 30 a new species of mosquito, Ae. trivittatus was trapped in North Stonington and was positive for EEE. Ground spraying will be done tonight, Oct. 3 if the weather cooperates. We are expecting a hard frost also tonight, Friday and Saturday.
Through all of this EEE crisis, and that salt marsh mosquitoes tested positive for EEE, the Governor has stated that the salt marsh mosquito control program will be reestablished in the spring of 1997. Also, EEE testing will begin again at the CAES. So far, the legislator's Environmental Committee met to discuss this issue and I have been asked to put together a program with about $650,000. Private PCO's will be involved with our mosquito control program.
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Greetings once again. We have now passed the half way mark in our 1996-1997 year of operation. Committees as follows have been very active:
Program has produced a preliminary tentative agenda that appears very exciting. Another meeting is scheduled in the near future.
Public Relations has made considerable progress on the lapel pin project.
Pesticide: Rod Schmidt resigned as Chairman and Coordinator of the annual training session. Increased county level of responsibilities preclude his continuation in that position. It is with regret that we accept his resignation but thank him for an excellent performance over his years of service, particularly hios direction of the annual pesticide training. Rod has offered to assist his replacement in this project, and for this we are deeply appreciative.
AMCA Year 2000: Christine Musa, Chairperson, has requested additional help from all N.J. Mosquito Control offices. Excerpts from her letter are printed herewith along with the areas of need. Charges of the specific committees have been eliminated but are available on request.
"The current goal of our committee is to have a particular individual named to be responsible for each of these areas. These individuals would become part of the committee. As stated at the Trustee's meeting on August 14, 1996, it is the committee's recommendations to have these individuals named and carried forward into the year 2000. A commitment through the year 2000 would provide continuity and would help to ensure the New Jersey Association hosts an unforgettable, high quality meeting. If anyone is interested in serving either as a coordinator for one of these areas or would like to volunteer to help the coordinator in the preparatory work in one or more of the areas please let me know."
AMCA 2000 RESPONSIBILITY AREAS:
A cursory review of our membership list and participating committees list suggests a disproportion in distribution. We seem heavy on participation of staff and superintendents.
We have a large number of commissioners and agency supervisors associated with mosquito control that are non-members or non-participants. The experience and assistance of this untapped resource would be of great value to our organization as well as mosquito control in general.
Dr. Thomas Murray, President, New Jersey Mosquito Control Association, Inc.
MEMBERSHIP IN NEW JERSEY MOSQUITO CONTROL ASSOCIATION, Inc.
Benefits of membership in the NJMCA, Inc. includes the Newsletter, a copy of the Proceedings of the NJMCA Annual Meetings, and you'll have the opportunity to participate in the exchange of ideas and knowledge with other mosquito control professionals. To apply for membership fill out the following application and forward it to: Mrs. A.R. Hajek, Mosquito Research and Control, Cook College, PO Box 231, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. Make checks payable to "New Jersey Mosquito Control Association", membership period is from March to March.
Name:____________________________________________
Individual $25.00/yr: _____________Contribution to D.M. Scholarship: _____________
Sustaining $250.00/yr: _____________
Address:____________________________________
___________________________________________
Phone: Office:( )______________
Home:( )________________
PUBLIC RELATIONS
The NJMCA, Inc. will be exhibiting at two conventions at Atlantic City's Convention Hall this November, volunteers are needed to help settup and man the Association's mosquito control display. The NJEA Teachers Convention Wed. is November 13th, 9:30 to 5:00PM and Thurs. November 14th, 9:00 to 4:00PM. The New Jersey League of Municipalities Convention is Tues. November 19th, 9:00 to 5:00PM, Wed. the 20th, 8:30 to 5:00PM, and Thurs. the 21st, 8:30 to 4:00PM. The day before each first day noted is the settup day. Anyone interested in helping should contact Public Relations committee chair Jim McNelly at 465-9038.
LETTERS TO THE COLLECTOR - notes mysteriously appearing in a NJ Light Trap somewhere in New Jersey.
Computer Use Survey Committee. A follow-up questionnaire to the 1993 computer committee survey was issued this spring.
The following survey results are from the Associated Executives of Mosquito Control Work in N. J. Computer: 16 of the 21 agencies polled responded to the follow-up questionnairwe. 13 of the 16 agencies indicated that they had responded to the original 1993 questionnaire. 11 agencies indicated that they had enhanced their computer capabilities since 1993.
Only 3 agencies have E-mail and internet capabilities while 7 agencies expressed interest in obtaining these in the future.
Almost every agency expressed interest in attending computer workshop sessions. The workshop topics that were requested in order of importance are: computer mapping, internet setup and useage, surveillance, E-mail, basic computer use, networking, multimedia, and software options.
The following table highlights how computers are presently being used in the N.J. mosquito control community.
USE |
USAGE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Word Processing |
None |
3 |
Low |
0 |
Moderate |
1 |
High |
12 |
Purchasing |
None |
7 |
Low |
3 |
Moderate |
1 |
High |
5 |
Payroll |
None |
10 |
Low |
1 |
Moderate |
1 |
High |
4 |
Surveillance data analysis |
None |
3 |
Low |
3 |
Moderate |
7 |
High |
3 |
Breeding site information |
None |
5 |
Low |
5 |
Moderate |
4 |
High |
2 |
Chemical usage |
None |
7 |
Low |
4 |
Moderate |
4 |
High |
1 |
Mapping |
None |
13 |
Low |
3 |
Moderate |
0 |
High |
0 |
Some of the recent additions to computer software by N.J. mosquito control agencies include upgrades to Windows 95, Wordperfect 6.0, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Office Pro. Computer equipment additions include fax modems, laser and inkjet printers, Cd rom, flatbed scanners, VCR signal converter and a Gateway computer system.
Robert Duryea, Warren County Mosquito Commission
TRAGEDY IN LOUISIANA
On Friday night August 30, 1996 two Jefferson Davis Parish Mosquito Control personnel were killed when the twin engine Aztec they were spraying mosquitoes in crashed into a swamp near Jennings Louisiana. Both the Director, Stephen Mayor and his pilot, Graham Richert died in the accident.
Stephen Mayor was Director of the Jefferson Davis Parish Mosquito Abatement District, former director of Caddo Parish Mosquito and Rodent Control in Shreveport, and President of the Louisiana Mosquito Control Association. Surviving are his wife, Linda Meyer Mayor; one son, Rayce Alan Mayor; one daughter, Lacey Mayor, all of Lake Arthur; and his mother, Mrs. Lennie Alford Mayor of Hammond.
PERSONNEL PROFILE
LINDA McCUISTON
Not all of the most valuable associates that we depend on for our work come from a contracted service, a vendor, or training session. One of the best, yet least recognized people is right in our own backyard. Who can say that they haven't depended on Linda McCuiston for some sort of assistance in the pursuit of accurate mosquito taxonomy, biology or epidemiology?
Linda has been working the labs at Headlee on the Rutgers University Campus during parts of at least the last three decades. She has performed mosquito identification for Dr. Lyle Hagmann during the years when Rutgers still id'd many county light trap collections. She has been technical assistant to Dr. Donald Sutherland for the State Airspray Programs toxicology and resistance studies and to Dr. Wayne J. Crans for the State Vector Surveillance Program. But her involvement is not just summed up in those programs!
The Douglass College graduate has assisted faculty at Rutgers in numerous courses, research projects and field studies. An undeterminable number of students, mosquito commission employees and visiting colleagues have probably submitted mosquito larvae or adults for identification or confirmation by Linda's eye.
One could probably not count how many times a county mosquito control program has sent a seasonal or permanent "Mosquito ID" specialist over to Rutgers to be trained to her certain standard, so that their day-to-day operations can be based on quality surveillance.
The status of the susceptibility of mosquitoes to the pesticides that we use or the vector potential of the populations of mosquitoes that we control, all have been subject to the professional scrutiny of Mrs. McCuiston.
In past years buckets and buckets of larvae were brought in from counties ranging from Bergen to Cape May. All were eventually nurtured and colonized to an eventual state of usefulness in resistance studies so that the work we all did was performed on a foundation of science and fact.
Light trap after light trap... box after box of adult mosquitoes still are sorted and speciated by Linda into controlled, standardized pools so they may be tested for the virus which may be harbored in the broods of mosquitoes that the rest of us fight annually and that which we protect the public from.
How versatile a biologist must be to provide quality technical expertise to a program, whether it be for research, teaching or cooperative extension. For years Linda has demonstrated such versatility.... seasoned by her willing, cooperative nature.
When she finally dose take a break from Mosquito Research and Control at New Brunswick, Linda and her husband Tom live in Manalapan Township, Monmouth County. They have three children.
Robert Ken, New Jersey OMCC
UPCOMING MEETINGS
A NOTE FROM MR. ZAWICKI
To all of my friends in the mosquito control community;
Over the past several years, many people have asked me when I am going to retire. I figured that people were looking for the day that I would no longer be around to try and sell them something. My standard answer has been "Tomorrow, if I can find someone to buy Northeast Vector Management, Inc."
I also hoped that someone would hear my message and make an offer for the company. Well, Clarke Mosquito Control Products from Roselle, IL heard my message, asked me what Nancy and I need to enjoy eventual retirement, and then put together a package that will allow me to retire on July 15, 1999.
I am very happy to let you know that Wally Terrill and Jeff Hottenstein have signed contracts with Clarke Mosquito Control Products and will continue to be the sales reps in the areas where they have worked the past few years.
Martha Zawicki will stay on as the inside sales person in Freehold, NJ. The Freehold office has become the northeastern territory office for Clarke Mosquito Control Products and I will continue to be headquartered in it.
Clarke Mosquito Control Products is going to take over the administrative aspects of the company. That part of the job has become more time consuming as Northeast Vector Management, Inc. enjoyed more and more business from our fine customers. That has meant that I did not have the amount of time that I wanted to spend with customers, and that has been one of my frustrations. The plan is that I should have more time to spend in the field once the reorganization details have been worked out.
Lyell Clarke, president of Clarke Mosquito Control Products has charged me with the responsibility of ensuring that the service that you have come to expect from Northeast Vector Management, Inc. will continue under the new ownership. I expect that will be the easiest part of my job over the next three years.
I have been very humbled and gratified by the many expressions of support that I have heard from many of you since the announcement of the sale. Thank you.
I hope to see you soon.
signature
NETWORKING, Henry R. Rupp
In today's world when people speak about networking, one almost automatically assumes they are talking about computer communications. However, there is an alternative meaning for networking, one that mosquito people would do well to explore. This latter type of networking can be defined as the sharing of information and strategies by people with a community of interests. That the need to recognize networking is meaningful as we near the turn of the millennium can be shown by the most recent attack on the use of pesticides, Our Stolen Future by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers, with a foreword by Vice President Al Gore.
Those who have gone through the legislative and regulatory struggles of the past will not view this latest attack on the use of pesticides with any sense of surprise. The anti-pesticide forces have been out there all along working steadily to undermine the use of pesticides. (Parenthetically, I hope it will be clear that when we speak of these people, we should not refer to them as environmentalists. Doing so would seem to make us what they say we are supposed to be: anti-environmentalists.) They continually strive to restrict the use of pesticides by trying to persuade legislatures, both state and local, to adopt IPM programs, the primary goal of which is not IPM but a radical reduction in the use of pesticides.
Some pure, unsullied souls in the mosquito community have said and probably will continue to say we should not ally ourselves with people like PCOs, lawn care practitioners, arborists, or agriculture workers. They will say we have a unique, health-oriented mission; we are public servants interested in service to the public not commercial operators interested only in money. They are mistaken. The anti-pesticide groups have one criterion: Do you use pesticides? If you do, then you are axiomatically one of the bad guys. Do they think there is any less health orientation in the control of cockroaches, rats, ticks or flies, particularly now that so many agencies which once did only mosquito control are now involved in vector control? Does returning to organic farming with its lower yields provide benefits to the health and well-being of a country where already too many are perceived as being undernourished? These are old questions and they really should be understood by all.
There is a very practical reason for networking. Today all government agencies are looking at tighter budgets; resources must be more carefully allocated. What better reason for sharing information than not having to constantly reinvent the wheel? Networking involves sharing, and a shared task can be accomplished more economically and effectively than when every group has to do all the work itself.
Throughout the United States there are many organizations composed of pesticide-using people. There are agricultural chemical associations, food and fiber associations, pest control associations, green industry (lawn care, arborists) groups. All have as their goal protecting the right to use environmentally safe pesticides in a responsible way. They keep a weather eye out for changes in legislation or regulation that would unreasonably inhibit their work. If the association is a multi-disciplinary group, there is a sharing of information for the benefit of all. If one group learns of pending actions in the anti-pesticide area, the information is distributed for the benefit of all. If making appearances before legislative committees or at regulatory hearings, the group can pool their information to insure that no legitimate objection to the proposed action is overlooked. It goes without saying that legislators respond better to larger groups than small ones.
Mosquito people in looking to the challenges of the future would do well to remember that pesticide users have not always fared well at the hands of the legislative-regulatory community. George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." It is not likely that we shall regain that which we have lost, but is that a reason to avoid preparing so that we lose not more? Mosquito people have profited by advances made in other areas; why should we now not benefit by sharing information to protect our ability to provide service to the public that supports us?
Aedes cinereus Meigen, by Wayne Crans, Rutgers University
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