1 

### DELAWARE MOSQUITO CONTROL SECTION



## A Dozen (12) Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQs)

June, 2008

Below are 12 FAQs that while relatively simple to ask, are for some a bit complicated to answer. As such, over the en suing 32 pages we’ve devoted some effort to provide the detailed answers they deserve.

1) Why are the mosquitoes so bad around my house, and what can I do or whom

can I call?

2) Why do we need mosquito control? What do you do this for?

3) What kinds of insecticides are used, and when do you use them?

4) Why do you have to use insecticides at all? Aren’t there better ways to achieve control? What other approaches do you use?

5) Are mosquito control insectic ides safe to use, and shou ld I be concerned if I’m exposed to spraying?

6) How can I find out when and where mosquito control spraying might be done?

7) If I don’t want to be exposed to mosqui to control spraying, what steps might I

take?

8) What personal protection measures can I take to help avoid mosquito bites?

9) What do I do if I find a sick/dead wild bird that might have West Nile virus?

10) What are human health problems/sym ptoms when a mosquito-borne viral

disease is contracted? And what is the probability of my becoming infected or

sick?

11) There are a lot of biting flies around my house or yard that I don’t like (or gnats, or ticks, or wasps, etc.). Can’t Mosquito Control do something to get rid

of them?

12) Describe the Mosquito Control Section. Where are you housed? How many people work for you? Where do you work ? What do you do in the winter? Who do you work with? Who are your pa rtners? What’s your budget? etc., etc., etc. Essentially, just who are you people?2 

### Introduction

The performance of mosquito control pres ents many challenges to its modern-day practitioners, and not surprisingly is of much interest to many people. Mosquito control in Delaware is done by the Mosquito Control Section , part of the Division of Fish and

Wildlife in the Department of Natural Resour ces and Environmental Control

.

As natural resource management professi onals charged with mosquito control responsibilities, we are asked to perform some complex undertakings. We are tasked to

somehow reach into the environment to eliminate or nullify a suite of quality-of-life, public health, and economic problems of serious concern to many Delawareans. These problems are generated by organisms that in their immature stages are found throughout the state in almost every type of aquatic ha bitat imaginable (with exception of the middle of fast-running streams), and which if uncontroll ed are airborne as adults and capable of widespread dispersal and much pestilence. The most practicable modern control tools that we have at our disposal are insecticides that we must judiciously spray over or within wetlands or other mosquito production habitats to control immature stages, but which we also sometimes have to directly apply over or within where people live, work or recreate to control adult mosquitoes. We also em ploy various wetland management techniques for larval control that must be carefully inst alled or implemented in very sensitive, very

valuable environments.

It is not unusual for many people to unde rstandably demand even more mosquito control than what we can reasonably deliver given environmental constraints and our available operational resources . In contrast to these numerous requests for control treatments, other folks without a good understa nding of what we do and how we have to do it are sometimes quite critical of our contro l methods. Indeed, we do not have an easy mission to fulfill. To help the general public (our residents and visitors), elected or appointed officials, the media, civic associations, environm ental organizations, and other interested groups better understand what we do and how we do it, we have compiled a set of a dozen (12) Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQ”) below, along with some answers that we hope will shed some light on our program. Th e 12 FAQs are as follows:

1) Why are the mosquitoes so bad around my house, and what can I do or

whom can I call? 2) Why do we need mosquito control? What do you do this for? 3) What kinds of insecticides are used, and when do you use them? 4) Why do you have to use insecticides at all? Aren’t there better ways to achieve control? What other approaches do you use? 5) Are mosquito control insect icides safe to use, and should I be concerned if I’m exposed to spraying? 6) How can I find out when and where mosquito control spraying might be

done? 7) If I don’t want to be exposed to mos quito control spraying, what steps might

I take?3 8) What personal protection measures can I take to help avoid mosquito bites? 9) What do I do if I find a sick/dead wild bird that might have West Nile virus? 10) What are human health problems/sym ptoms when a mosquito-borne viral

disease is contracted? And what is th e probability of my becoming infected

or sick? 11) There are a lot of biting flies around my house or yard that I don’t like (or gnats, or ticks, or wasps, etc.). Can’t Mosquito Control do something to get

rid of them? 12) Describe the Mosquito Control Section. Where are you housed? How many people work for you? Where do you work ? What do you do in the winter? Who do you work with? Who are your pa rtners? What’s your budget? etc., etc., etc. Essentially, just who are you people?

1) Why are the mosquitoes so bad around my house, and what can I do or whom can

I call?

Many adult mosquitoes around the home of ten come from mosquito-production sites within the neighborhood or in close pr oximity to residential areas. To help minimize mosquito annoyances, ho meowners should take steps to eliminate or reduce standing or stagnant water on or nearby their propert ies, including attending to potential mosquito-production habitats such as clogged ra in gutters and downspouts, poorly-drained flat roofs, old tires, abandoned inground or aboveground swimming pools (including plastic kiddie wa ding pools), unused bird baths, depressions in boat covertarps, bilge water in boat bottoms, flower pot bottom liners, garbage cans or their upturned lids, discarded soda or paint cans, upright wheelbarrows, or any other types of

structures or containers that can collect and hold water for 4 or more consecutive days. [Just imagine the numbers of nooks-and-crannies that might hold rainwater in an auto salvage yard or a scrap tire pile!] In additi on, any grading of topsoil for grass planting or following septic system installation should en sure that rain or sprinkler-system water does not become puddled or trapped on the surf ace for any extended length of time.4 Ornamental ponds can also breed mosquitoes , and since you obviously want water here, other control measures might have to taken – e.g. ensuring good flow or changeover of water to avoid stagnant conditi ons, stocking or raising fishes that eat mosquito larvae, or judicious treatment with an appropria te mosquito larvicide.

Mosquitoes can also breed in roadsi de ditches, wet woodland pools, or stormwater management basins where water is held for 4 or more consecutive days. In many situations, a homeowner has limited physical capability or legal ability to eliminate these nearby breeding sites, and as such s hould contact the Mosquito Control Section to report such problem areas, which might then lead to the Section helping to physically eliminate the breeding habitats, or to our ma king the reported problem sites part of the

Section’s surveillance and insecticide trea tment program. Frequently, mosquito annoyances around the home might not originate from the immedi ate vicinity at all, since some mosquito species have flight ranges of 3-5 miles up to 10-15 miles away from their

natal sites in order to seek bloodmeals – saltmarsh mosquitoes and some woodland species are well known for their long flight distances. A substantial amount of Delaware’s saltmarsh mosquito production problems arise from Bombay Hook and Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuges, to then pot entially affect people in off-Refuge locations, and it’s only through good cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that we are able to spare many Delawareans from Refuge-produced mosquitoes. In such situations where a private landowner cannot do much to control the mosquitoes that eventually make it to his/her property, only th e Section’s intervention can help. When you have need to contact the Mosquito Control Section about an intolerable nuisance situation or a suspected breeding problem, in New Castle County or northwestern Kent County please call 836-2555 (our Glasgow operational HQ); and in the remainder of Kent County or all of Sussex Counties please call 422-1512 (our Milford operational HQ).

Since our field inspectors and surv eillance/monitoring devices cannot be everywhere around the State during the time a mos quito brood is in progress, we rely in part upon receiving public complaints to help us target where we might best spend our limited resources. Your calling one of the two the numbers above is an important, valuable way to help us to focus our res ponse actions, and your complaint situation will usually be verified as soon as possible th rough one or more of our field surveillance methods discussed in FAQ #3 below. For your getting the most ra pid response from our control program, and for our most accurately receiving and recording the information you want to provide (and that we need to have), we ask that you call us directly, rather than your first going through an elected official or third party (i.e. please do not immediately call your State Sena tor, State Representative or a County official) – if for some reason you become dissatisfied with our response or service, you could always then follow-up by contacting an elected official or third party, but even then we would first appreciate your direct callbac k, to see if we could still tr y to rectify your problem.

One exception to your first calling the Mo squito Control Section is that if you live in an incorporated municipality and de sire to request spraying for relief from biting adult mosquitoes, you must first contact your appropriate city or town5 official, since by our Spray Policy we only provide such spraying services within a municipality’s borders only upon official requests from city or town officials. If you do not know who your appropriate local offi cials might be, you can call the Mosquito Control Section and we will provide you with their names and phone numbers. Additionally, for residential s ubdivisions in unincorporated areas of New Castle County, the Mosquito Control Section prefers to have citizen requests for adult mosquito control services to come through local homeowner or civic associations, conveyed by the

associations to the Section on an annual basis.

Please understand that during periods of peak mosquito outbreaks, our agency

often receives dozens of calls per day, and within just several days this can amount to a backlog of hundreds of complaints. When such problems pile-up, as they all too frequently do, we are then forced to priori tize even further where and when we’ll treat, trying to provide the most relief to the most people in the fastest time; as such, depending upon your situation from a statewide perspec tive, you or your neighbor s might not always get as rapid a response as you might desire . But as always, no matter how you might end-up requesting our control se rvices, or where you might e nd-up in our prioritizations for response, we will continue to try to do the best we can with the working resources we’ve been provided.

2) Why do we need mosquito control? What do you do this for?

If you were the caller in FAQ #1 above c ontacting us about intolerable mosquito nuisance problems around your home, then you already know a prime reason for why

we’re in business. At one time before the adve nt of modern mosquito control practices in Delaware, dating back essentially to the late 1950s and before, many developed areas of the First State (e.g. downtown D over!) would more than occasionally experience severe mosquito infestations having landing rate counts of biting adult mosquitoes from 20-50 per minute up to 100 bites per minute, which through nuisance or annoyance greatly

diminishes an area’s quality-of-life . A landing rate count of only 1-2 mosquitoes per minute in your backyard on some balmy summer evening would translate within a halfhour into 30-60 bites affecting exposed pa rts of your body, clearly not a desirable situation. Imagine how long you’d stay outsi de in a setting of 20-50 bites per minute, with truly ghastly counts of 100 bites per minute having been documented! And as more-and-more people move into Delaware, and as they increasingly seem to all want to

live in areas near coastal wetlands or wet woodlands, demands for our control services (and upon our program’s limited resources) only continue to escalate.

In addition to personal discomfort from such infestation levels, uncontrolled mosquito populations can also have significant adverse impacts to local economies based upon tourism, outdoor recreation, or animal husbandry, along with undesirable effects on your neighborhood’s property values . As such, our delivery of mosquito control helps to maintain a good quality-of-life and robust economy throughout many areas of Delaware – without our continuous, behind-the-scene contro l efforts, a large portion of modern Delaware would not be very livable from April through early November. Many visitors coming to our coastal resort areas from Baltimore,6 Washington, northern Virginia, the New Yo rk City area, northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, southeastern Pennsylvania, Wi lmington, Newark or other urban regions do not realize how naturally “buggy” a place they ha ve chosen to visit. It is somewhat bemusing when some of these good folks first re alize what we have to do to make their visit a relatively pest-free (and disease- free) experience – incongruously, they’ll sometimes ask: “What do you need mosquito control for?!!! The number of mosquitoes flying around here aren’t that bad.”

Another major reason for controlling mosqu itoes is their well-known potential for carrying and transmitting pathogens that can cause diseases , not only just to humans,

but also to our domesticated animals such horses or dogs. In Delaware today, we are concerned with encephalitis viruses such as eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) , an alphavirus, which when either humans or horse s contract EEE can often be fatal, with special concern for children and elderly. T hose who recover from EEE are often left with lifelong debilitating symptoms – there is a EEE vaccine for horses, but not for humans. Fortunately, the occurrence of EEE is relatively rare, and th e Mosquito Control Section works hard to keep it this way. West Nile virus (WNV) , a flavivirus, is a recentlyintroduced Old World encephaliti s virus first coming into th e country in 1999 in the New York City area, carried by wild birds and mo squitoes that has now spread from coast-tocoast. This virus first appeared in De laware in 2002, and is now well established throughout the state. West Ni le Virus is not as virule nt as EEE, but nonetheless contracting WNV is still quite a medical concern for the elderly or people having impaired immune systems. [A more in-d epth discussion of the health problems and symptoms associate with contracting EEE or WNV is provided in FAQ #10 below.] An effective WNV vaccine has now been developed for horses, but if a WNV vaccine is ever developed for humans, it’s still several year s away. The occurrenc e of EEE and WNV in nature involves complex transmission cycles of several mosquito species and wild birds (songbirds play a very prominent role here), wi th a branching off to humans and horses in these cycles as “dead end” hosts for encephal itis viruses. Other encephalitides of much

more minor concern in Delaware include St. Louis Encephalitis (SLE) , another flavivirus, which at times has had epidemic out breaks in the central U.S. and Florida; as well as the potential for LaCrosse Encephalitis (LAC) , a bunyavirus, which is usually

associated with the mid-West. Mos quito bites per se, ev en without pathogen transmissions, are also a human health problem , as mothers can readily attest when their

children are festooned with numerous bites and ca n’t fall asleep all night long. Excessive numbers of mosquito bites per se, sans any pathogen transmission, can cause allergenic problems at bite sites (or even systemically) for extremely sensitive individuals, can lead to secondary infections from aggressively sc ratching bites sites (children are most prone to doing this), and can cause psychogenic pr oblems from mental anguish/torment. Another mosquito-caused problem in Delaware is canine heartworm , a mosquito-borne pathogen often fatal to dogs, so dog owners are urged to put their dogs on preventive medication to avoid this problem.

Many Delawareans are probably not aware th at so-called “tropical” diseases, such

as yellow fever (a flavivirus) or malaria (a protozoan parasite, Plasmodium spp.), were at one time quite common in th e southeastern United States, including areas as far north7 as Delaware and even into New England. A yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia in 1793 killed 10% of the city’s residents and si ckened another 20%. Malaria was a serious problem for Civil War soldiers throughout the southeast, in cluding Confederate prisoners

confined to Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island, and as recently as only a few years ago isolated but locally-transmitted cases of mala ria surfaced in New Jersey and Maryland. Many a colonial estate or an tebellum plantation owner along the southeastern seaboard, including areas of the mid-Atlantic, knew that come summer it was time to seek refuge further inland or up in the mountains for themselves and their privileged families, to thereby avoid the “swamp ague” that often somehow caused great sickness for those less

fortunate who had to remain behind. Dengue (“breakbone”) fever , a flavivirus, is currently a mosquito-borne problem throughout the Caribbean and Mexico, with recent occurrences in southern Texas, plus potential for this diseas e in other Gulf Coast states too. A serious outbreak of dengue recently occurred in Hawaii -- the hemorrhagic form of dengue can often be fatal. Elephantiasis is a mosquito-borne disease caused by roundworms, and while primarily occurring in Africa and southeast As ia, there are also problem areas in northern South America. It is only through continued vigilance and proactive implementation of m odern mosquito control practices within the United States, combined with good disease scr eening and follow-up medical ca re, that these “tropical” diseases are no longer major concerns in the lives of most modern Americans, including Delawareans. But an example of a mosquito -borne disease that might prove to be the next newly emerging infectious di sease in the United States is chikungunya , an alphavirus causing debilitating febrile illne ss and incapacitating joint pain, originating from Africa that in recent years has caused major disease outbreaks in India; and most recently in fairly alarming manner, chikungunya had spread to temperate climes in Italy, in concert with how both people and organism s can now rapidly travel around the globe. Modern-day mosquito control pr actices must be vigilantly and aggressively employed if we are to avoid or lessen the global spr ead of these mosquito-borne ills.

Delaware has about 57 species of mosquito es that breed in the widest range of aquatic habitats, and over a do zen of these species are very problematic for people. Problem-causing mosquitoes originate from our coastal marshes, in wet woodlands and swamps, and in many urban or suburban locatio ns where they can prolifically breed in almost any type of man-made structure or container that collects and holds water for 4 days or longer. A newly-ar rived problem species since th e late 1980’s in Delaware (and throughout much of the eastern and central United States) is the Asian tiger mosquito

, which was accidentally imported from the Fa r East with scrap tires destined for recapping, and which is now the #1 urban problem-mosquito from New Orleans to Chicago to Baltimore, and in Delaware beca use of its abundance and aggressive daytime biting behavior now causes problems from Wilmington to Dover to Seaford and

Rehoboth.

With over 20% of Delaware’s surface area consisting of either tidal marshes or wet woodlands, and with the state also ha ving a relatively high human population density along with an abundance of domestic breeding si tes, there are plenty of opportunities for mosquitoes to raise a ruckus, both for our re sidents statewide and for visitors to our coastal resort areas. For the most pa rt, many Delawareans well know why we must8 perform mosquito control in Delaware, and fo r over 75 years there has been a strong call for organized mosquito control within the First State. Unde r a clearcut statutory mandate from our citizens, the Mosquito Control Sec tion tries our best to provide these desired quality-of-life and public health services, doi ng such in as environmentally-compatible manner as practicable to do.

3) What kinds of insectic ides are used, and when do you use them?

A variety of insecticides are needed fo r performance of modern-day mosquito control, and are used only when and where ot her types of control ar e not practicable to do (see FAQ #4 below for a discussion of alternativ e control methods to insecticide use). The Mosquito Control Section utilizes insect icides as an important component of its Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. Please note that IPM does not mean that no insecticides can be used (as sometimes popul arly misunderstood), nor that insecticides must be only a minor part of an IPM contro l strategy. Rather IPM refers to making the

best use of a combination of the most practicable control methods at our disposal to deal with real world situations in treating pest problems only when and where they occur, doing such in the most efficacious, environmentally-compatible, cost-effective manner possible.

There are two basic types of mo squito control insecticides – larvicides for control of larval or immature mosquitoes, selectivel y applied to wetland areas and other aquatic larval habitats; and adulticides for control of flying or re sting adults, selectively used primarily in upland areas where adults on-wi ng are causing problems. All insecticides that we use are registered by the U.S. E nvironmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the types of applications we perform. Ins ecticide applications are done only when and where we have indications of unacceptable or intolerable numbers of mosquitoes undergoing larval development or already on-win g, and these mosquitoes must also be of the dozen or so species that are particular ly problematic biters of humans or other

mammals. Indications of when and where spraying is necessary are derived through an extensive and intensive field surveillance/monitoring effort , involving a variety of detection efforts – e.g. larval sampling in wetlands and other mosquito-production areas (“dipper counts”); landing rate counts (i.e. numbers of adult fe male mosquitoes that land on a field inspector per minute); nightly ad ult light trap collections; detection or occurrence of disease viruses or other pathoge ns within mosquitoes themselves or in sentinel organisms; the numbers and patterns of public complaints received; etc. No spraying is done unless thres hold criteria (involving subjectiv e or objective measures) are exceeded for these various indicators, and quite often a combination of indicators is used.

Spray applications might be aerially done using fixed-wing airc raft or helicopters for larvicides or adulticides, or might involve truck-mounted applications of larvicides (via “pump truck”) or adulticides (via “foggers ”). Larviciding to treat small areas or container habitats is often done on-foot, using backpack sprayers or hand-tossed formulations. The choice of what type of in secticide to use and its mode of delivery is dependent upon the type of species to be contro lled, the life stage(s) targeted for control during any particular brood, and the type of ha bitat or location where spraying will occur.9 Since in almost all cases larviciding involves less dire ct exposure of people to insecticides than adulticiding, whenev er we have to spray we usually always prefer to try to larvicide first , and turn to adulticiding only as a last resort

.

The timing for when we apply our insectic ides, and for how the applications are done, is also determined (and quite often co mplicated) by weather conditions (e.g. air temperature, wind speed and dire ction, humidity, rainfall), a ll which must be considered in our performing appropriate and allowabl e treatments. All of our public spray

announcements have the condition of “weat her permitting.” When dealing with saltmarsh mosquito larval control, we must al so take into consideration daily tide stages and the monthly lunar tide cycle too. In doing our spring woodland-pool species control, we are often racing against the calendar to co mplete our aerial larviciding before forest canopy leaf-out prevents e ffective spraying of our products. And you can probably readily envision the many problems we face when trying to treat urban or congested areas – think about all the things you might have to deal with wh en trying to operate a truckmounted adulticide sprayer as one encounters crowds of people along the streets, traffic jams, or detours, during an effort to prescriptively apply uniform amounts or

concentrations of an insectic ide – this is one reason w hy you might see inner-city ground adulticiding being performed 3:00 am in th e early morning rather than 5:00 pm in

afternoon.

Our frontline larvicides are Bti (e.g. VectoBac, VectoLex, Teknar or Aquabac, which are all bacterially-produced insecticides) and methoprene (e.g. Altosid, a juvenile growth hormone mimic), both which can be app lied in liquid or gra nular formulations.

Bti is primarily effective against earlier immatu re stages, and seems to work better (or at least more consistently) for control of fr eshwater species (e.g. spring woodland-pool breeding species) than for saltmars h mosquitoes of the open marsh. Methoprene is best used against later immature st ages, and is effective against both freshwater and saltmarsh species, but still has to be applie d before the larvae pupate. Both Bti and methoprene are state-of-art, third-generation pe sticides that are classified as “biorational” products. Another type of larvicid e available to us is temephos (e.g. Abate, an organophosphate second-generation insecticide), which we us e in liquid formulation for control of freshwater mosquitoes in roadside ditches, or in granular form for saltmarsh mosquito control in areas of heavy wetlands vegetation – temephos is effective against all larval stages. A final type of larvicide that we occasionally use are monomolecular surface films (e.g. Agnique or Arosurf) to treat la rvae or pupae, usually hand-applied to container-breeding or other types of confined freshwater habitats.

Our frontline aerially-applied adulticide to treat problem mosquitoes on-wing is

naled (Trumpet or Dibrom, an organophosphate), which is equally effective against freshwater or saltmarsh mosquitoes. [ Naled is used by many mosquito control programs around the country; as is anot her organophosphate adulticide, malathion (e.g. Fyfanon or Atrapa) which the Section currently does not us e.] Another category of adulticides that we use is synthetic pyrethroids, which seem to be more efficacious when applied by truck-mounted sprayers (“foggers”) than by ai rcraft. The primary synthetic pyrethroid that we use for ground “fogging” is permethrin (e.g. Permanone, Biomist, Aqua-Reslin),10 although alternatives such as resmethrin (e.g. Scourge) or sumithrin (e.g. Anvil) are also available and used around the country. Natural pyrethroid derivatives such as pyrethrin (e.g. Pyrenone) can also be used. Unfortunately, in comparison to naled , synthetic pyrethroids don’t seem to be as efficacious against saltmarsh mosquitoes, nor seemingly as good for aerial applications.

It is important that we have this divers ity of mosquito control insecticide products to call upon, since we need such versatility in dealing with different target species, different brood or life stages , different types of habitats to treat, varying weather conditions to work under, special concerns for avoiding certain t ypes of potential nontarget impacts, etc. We must also take steps not to overuse a ny one of these products against our local mosquito populations, in orde r to avoid or at least postpone the possible appearance of insecticide resistance (which undercuts eff ective control) among our target species. Insecticid e resistance can aris e through overly-aggressively targeting certain species or life stages with but a singl e product, such that th e small percentage of any species population that might be naturally resistant to whatever insecticide is being used then greatly multiplies because of its e ssentially insecticide “resistant” or immune nature, to then dominate future generations of the target species (for which we would

then have one less control tool that will wo rk). As such, for avoidance of resistance problems alone, it’s important to be able to us e and rotate a variety of insecticides in our control work, and to also adopt new insecticides wh enever possible and appropr iate.

4) Why do you have to use insecticides at all? Aren’t there better ways to achieve control? What other approaches do you use?

Modern insecticides are but a tool that mosquito control professionals can call upon in their IPM programs to help reduce or suppress intolerable numbers of mosquitoes. As with all pesticides, there is al ways the chance in using an insecticide that something might go wrong, or that a product’s use might have unintended consequences that are not foreseen. However, the devel opment process for modern insecticides, given the extensive and intensive product review a nd registration process that is conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), helps to ensure to the extent practicable that today’s use a nd application of modern mosqu ito control insecticides is done as safely as possible, and that any risk s from adverse impacts to humans, wildlife or environment are extremely minuscule. In fact the EPA has declared that when these registered products are used in accordance with all label langua ge requirements and conditions, which by federal law they must, then their use “poses no unreasonable risks to human health, wildlife or the environment.” In terms of risk-benefits, problems that mosquitoes cause for quality-of-life, public health or local econo mies are far greater issues than the deminimus or very small risk s that might be associated with infrequent exposure to mosquito control spraying. Mo re information about the safety of our mosquito control products is provided in FAQ #5 below.

Having said this, the Mosquito Control Sect ion still prefers wherever practicable to use non-insecticide control methods , since the exceedingly small risks that might be associated with mosquito cont rol spraying obviously go to zero if or where11 no spraying is done. The most practicable al ternatives to using insecticides are a category of control met hods collectively called source reduction , which through various approaches either eliminate mosquito-p roducing habitats, or somehow control mosquitoes in their pre-emergence larval stages. One example of source reduction was mentioned in FAQ #1 above, whereby propert y owners practicing good water sanitation

around their homes or businesses can measur ably help to reduce mosquito-production habitats. Public education and cooperation is the key to this t ype of domestic water

sanitation source reduction.

However, many breeding habita ts are too large, or in too remote or inaccessible areas, for private citizens to be able to pr ovide much help for source reduction, which is where the Mosquito Control Section must then act. Because of th e long flight ranges of saltmarsh mosquitoes and the remote wetland areas where these mosquitoes are often produced, the Mosquito Control Section devotes a lot of its efforts to managing saltmarsh habitats for reduction of mosquito pr oduction, including usin g a source reduction technique known as Open Marsh Water Management (OMWM) . The OMWM method selectively excavates small, shallo w ponds and ditches in mosquito-production areas of the high salt marsh, which in doing helps eliminate or reduces egg-deposition habitats for saltmarsh mosquito species (which require moist muds for their egg-laying), and which then also provides permanent water habitats for resident native fishes (e.g. killifishes, Fundulus ) that are voracious predators upon mosquito larvae. All OMWM

wetland alterations are done unde r regulatory oversight by the Delaware Mosquito Control Advisory Committee (DMCAC), consisting of f our federal agencies (Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Pr otection, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service), three DNREC agencies (Division of Fish and Wildlife, Wetlands and Subaqueous Lands Section, Delaware Coastal Management Program), and the State Histor ic Preservation Office.

Most OMWM alterations are not directly c onnected to daily tidal flows, such that OMWM ponds and ditches do not typically dr ain or dewater marsh surfaces of their standing water bodies, nor excessively lower the marsh subsurface water table. This helps to control saltmarsh mosquitoes without insecticides in a ma nner that avoids the previously detrimental ecological impacts of the old parallel-grid-ditch system , which were open tidal ditches geometrically spaced about 150-feet apart, traversing much of Delaware’s tidal wetlands (in both mosquito -production and non-production areas), with

intention to drain or dewater marsh surfaces. The parallel-grid-ditches were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930’ s, and these ditches were periodicallyrecleaned of accumulated sediments into the 1970’s. The open, tidal parallel-gridditches had adverse impacts on saltmarsh habitats by draining many shallow ponds and

mudflat areas that were valuable fish and wildlife habitats, and in some areas through spoil deposition (from the ditch excavations ), or by lowering of the subsurface water table by low tide drainage, caused undesirabl e vegetation changes (e.g. incursions of

marsh shrubs such as Iva or Baccharis, or the reed grass Phragmites , in ditched areas). Furthermore, while the old parallel-grid-ditche s helped to reduce mosquito production in some areas, these ditches were still not eff ective enough to achieve the desired level of12 control needed in many locations, because mosquito-production habitats between the parallel-grid-ditches (particularly the small “pothole” depressions) were not drained.

Today’s modern OMWM technique avoids these problems by using specialized excavation machinery that does not cause exce ssive increases in marsh elevations from spoil deposition (e.g. a rotary ex cavator, which broadcasts excava ted spoil as a thin slurry over the marsh surface); by OMWM system desi gn and excavated alterations that do not lead to excessive lowering of the subsurf ace water table; and by actually satisfactorily controlling almost all mosquito production in areas that are treated. Furthermore, the installation of OMWM systems as overlays upo n old parallel-grid-ditc h networks helps to restore standing surface waters to the marsh valu able as fish and wildlife habitats, thereby restoring some lost wetland values and func tions. Unfortunately, OMWM cannot be used everywhere saltmarsh mosquitoes breed, b ecause of factors like not having marsh landowner permission or cooperation (for a variety of reasons); by site access considerations for heavy machinery; by othe r environmental considerations (e.g. leaving intact the relatively little salt marsh acreage in Delaware, and within the entire Northeast too, that still remains undisturbed by any type of alteration, such as what is found at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge); or by project size or proj ect scale (it’s not usually cost-effective to treat small marsh ar eas or small amounts of mosquito production with OMWM, especially when there are so many larger areas of the State’s coastal wetlands still needing OMWM treatment). Wherever there are problematic salt marsh

habitats that cannot be treated with OMWM, then judicious use of insecticides must be employed; and because of the scale of the pr oblems encountered in salt marshes, usually treated via aerial spraying by fixed-wing aircra ft, or sometimes if more localized treated via helicopter. Installing OMWM systems is a labor- and capital- intensive undertaking, but in the long-run is usually more cost-effective than continual periodic treatments with

insecticides.

Other types of source reduction practi ced by the Mosquito Control Section

include management of tidal flows or exchanges and marsh water levels to discourage or control mosquito production in coastal wetlands impoundments , which on federal, state and private lands tota l over 10,000 acres of Delaware ’s >90,000 acres of coastal wetlands. These impoundments are areas of mars h that are diked-off with levees, whose

interior waters are then mana ged by various types of water c ontrol structures for multiple environmental goals and objectives, including flood prevention, stormwater management, waterfowl production and hunting, habitats fo r wading birds and shorebirds, estuarine fish nursery areas, crabbing and fishing, sa ltmarsh mosquito control, nature study, canoeing, etc. Along with our other colleague s in the Division of Fish and Wildlife, the Mosquito Control Section plays a major role on State lands in helping to maintain and manage these valuable wetland units.

It is not always possible ( nor desirable) to manage tidal exchanges or marsh water levels in impoundments for only one purpose, so sometimes it’s not always possible to achieve satisfactory mosquito control in impoundments through water management alone, which might then necessitate some judicious insecticide spraying (using larvicides), usually with a helicopter, but sometimes in more expansive impoundments by13 fixed-wing aircraft. Shallow ponds and ditches can also be excavated within impoundment interiors to help control mosquito produc tion, but these features are often

difficult to maintain because of the unc onsolidated nature of many impoundment bottoms, which then tend to rapidly fill-in any excavations that were made, routinely requiring re-excavations. However, where still cost-effective to routinely do this periodic re-excavation, and in order to reduce insecticide use or maintain or enhance fish and wildlife habitats, the Mosquito Contro l Section is committed to undertaking this impoundment source reduction work.

Another type of source reduction performed by the Mosquito Control Section

involves the stocking of mosquitofish ( Gambusia ) in freshwater mosquito-production habitats, such as in stormwater management basins that are often associated with subdivision developments or hi ghway projects, or in small natural or ornamental ponds. Unfortunately, fish survival cannot always be ensured in many of these locations, because of water volume or water quality problems, a nd often because of t oo cold overwintering temperatures, eliminating the stocked fish. The rearing and distribut ion of mosquitofish is also very labor intensive. Additionally, stocking mosquitofish in some natural areas cannot be done because of concerns about adverse impacts to native fishes through interspecific competition, or because of concerns about predatory impacts upon amphibians of special concern. Unfortuna tely, there is not a freshwater “OMWMequivalent” method for dealing with non-tid al mosquito production problems found in

freshwater wetlands or wet woodlands. When source reduction using mosquitofish cannot be employed, then these types of hab itats must be treated with insecticides (primarily larvicides), often done by hand or ground-application equipm ent. Finally, in regard to source reduction approaches for stormwater management basins, there are

considerations in a basin’s design and construction, and in management of its water levels, that will help to reduce mosquito production, all which are encouraged to be followed by developers or other agencies.

Other types of source reduction are possi ble, but unfortunately their overall effectiveness is usually not sati sfactory, or is often not up to what one is sometimes led to believe will occur. For example, en couraging on your property through nesting

structures colonies of purple martins (via elevated, multi-chambered “houses”) certainly cannot hurt, but scientific studies have show n that when mosquito production is even moderately high, and the production problem em anates from expansive nearby areas, that these birds are really not very effective at all in reducing mosquito infestations, even for achieving the local relief that might be desire d. Part of the problem stems from purple martins actively flying and feeding only dur ing daytime only, whereas many mosquito problems are most pronounced during twilight peri ods or dark (the birds might have more of a beneficial effect here via controlling da ytime biting greenhead flies, deer flies, or biting gnats). If one is looking to encourag e airborne predators to help combat local mosquito problems, building bat houses to encourage colonizati on by nocturnal flying bats is probably more effective; but then one has to also tolerate having bats around, which aesthetically some people (especially neighbors) might not like, not to mention concerns about bats carrying and possibly transmitting rabies.14 The electronic “bug zappers” that are so popular in some neighborhoods have been scientifically shown to really be of very little value in controlling mosquito populations, and have also been documented to have adverse impacts on non-target insect species. Commercial mosquito collection/killing traps (e.g. Mosquito Magnet, Mosquito Deleto), some which are rather soph isticated with lights, fans and sources of

carbon dioxide or other a ttractants (e.g. octenol), might be marginally effective in some localized situations. However, because of their relatively high expense (several hundred dollars) and limited areal effect (supposedly about 1⁄2-acre), these devices are really not very effective for contending with larger-sca le problems, and hence not very practicable to consider using for large-scale needs or ope rations. But this is not to say that these devices cannot provide some very localized reli ef in your backyard se tting, if not in terms of a noticeable drop in the num bers of mosquitoes that ar e biting you, then perhaps at least for psychological relief, in that you’re at least doing something to help kill some

skeeters.

Finally, it should be noted that the mosqu ito control profession is always on the lookout for more efficacious, cost-effective control methods that also lessen any nontarget impacts. Various alternatives have been proposed or arisen, and many have been tested, such as introduction in the field of irra diated, sterilized adu lt male mosquitoes or genetically manipulated mosquitoes to tr y to lessen reprodu ctive potential; the introduction of fungi, protozoans, nematodes or other microbial pathogens to infect and kill mosquito larvae; the introduction of mosquito species that as larvae prey upon other mosquito larvae (“cannibal” mosquitoes); etc. However, while these alternatives might look good in theory or in the lab, in terms of their performance in the field, or in regard to their practicability for large-scal e operations, they have so fa r not been satisfactory. To this category might also now be added tryi ng to use ultrasonic sound waves to physically kill larvae by rupturing air pockets or bladde rs within their bodies, which shows some promise in smaller or tightly confined aqua tic habitats (e.g. Larvasonic for treating storm sewer catch-basins), but awaits further res earch in terms of cont rol efficacy, non-target impacts, and practicable utility. In colla boration with academic researchers and product manufacturers, we are always seeking “new ch emistries” or other improved technologies for potential adoption for our control t oolbox (e.g. insect growth regulators, ovipositioning repellents, algal- or plant- produced toxins, population autoinhibitors, molecular or DNA-based insecticides), perh aps leading to yet another generation of further improved insecticides.

More information about the Mosquito Control Section’s options and choices for dealing with mosquito production problems can be found on the Section’s Internet

website at http://www.fw.delaware.gov/Servi ces/Pages/MosquitoSection.aspx

.

5) Are mosquito control insecticides safe to use, and should I be concerned if I’m exposed to spraying?

The Mosquito Control Section only uses insecticides that are registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for mosquito control purposes . The EPA has determined through an inclusive and exhaustive science-based testing and15 review process that when these modern inse cticides are applied in accordance with all EPA-approved product label instructions, whic h by federal law must be followed, their application “poses no unreasonable risks to human health, wildlife or the

environment.” The EPA’s review process now t ypically entails that a pesticide manufacturer must spend almost 10 y ears and from $30-$50 million dollars, and sometimes up to $100 million, in testing before being allowed to bring a new product to market, and also has to invest significant resources in keeping an existing pesticide reregistered for continued use, all which is gi ven careful scrutiny and review by the EPA. In part, the types of testi ng done include exposures and reactions of birds and mammals to ingested, inhaled or dermal contacts with a pesticide; as well as examining acutely

toxic and sub-lethal chronic effects of pe sticide exposures to fishes, reptiles and amphibians, and terrestrial and aquatic invert ebrates (with various types of tests done on adults, juveniles, and larval or other immature forms).

The hazardous warning statements and other safety precautions that appear on pesticide product labels are often a source of concern to folks who do not understand their context or applicability, and as such sometimes present public relations problems for our program. It must be kept in mind that the EPA-approved warn ing or precautionary language on product labels is ta rgeted primarily toward avoi ding having a human or other type of organism have dir ect exposure (through ingestion, in halation or dermal contact) to full-strength, undiluted products, as well as what to do if such exposure has occurred. The product label language is also of primary utility to the spray applicators themselves, who most frequently might routinely or acciden tally have such exposures. It must be understood that the final applica tion of insecticides during ou r routine spray operations is always done via a mode of delivery approved by the EPA, with applications made at concentrations that are either always very diluted or at Ultra-Low Volume (ULV) rates, and which are not done very frequently for any given site. As such in real world use, these application conditions have allowed the EPA to scientifically conclude that when all product label language and instructions are followed as federal law requires, use of our mosquito control insecticides “poses no unreasonable risks to human health,

wildlife or the environment.”

As part of the Delaware Department of Natural Resource and Environmental Control (DNREC) within the Division of Fish and Wildlife, the Mosquito Control

Section is of course very concerned that there are no unacceptabl e non-target impacts (to humans or fish and wildlife) whenever we must conduct our sp ray operations. The first generation of modern in secticides arose in the 1940’s, which included long-lasting products like chlorinated hydrocarbons (e.g. DDT ), and whose environmental persistence unforeseeably might have led to some problems for some higher-order consumers, has now been replaced by much shorter-live d second and third generation modern

insecticides.

As a sidebar before moving onto a discu ssion of our more modern second and third generation insecticides, it should be not ed that the often touted story of adverse impacts from DDT’s use, supposedly in pa rt manifested in drastically reduced populations of bald eagles, ospreys, falcons or pelicans allegedly occurring via egg-shell16 thinning and reproductive failure , actually has only weak scie ntific underpinnings along

with some scientific evidence to the contrary, with the hi storical declines and rebounds for these avian populations also being reasonably attributable to several other factors not related to pesticide exposures. This may come as a somewhat surprising revelation to some folks, in that the DDT/bird decline story has now become so well engrained in “popular wisdom” or lore, but this scenario’s perpetuation in unchallenged manner really does a disservice to good science. A hist ory over the past 45 years of people unknowingly frequently repeating this somewhat dubious set of events and impacts (often done with some passion and conviction on the part of the tellers) has taken on a life of its own, with this supposed scenario then morphi ng into “the truth,” which in large measure then conforms to what some or even many pe ople want to believe. However, exploring this matter in any balanced manner and warrant ed scientific depth w ould the subject of a whole another review beyond these FAQs.

Even with the DDT/bird decline story not holding up real well to more objective and less impassioned scientific scrutiny, this is not to say that a ll concerns about the potential for yet unknown or poorly-understood non-target impacts, even when products

are used in strict accordance with all EPA-approved label in structions, have completely faded for all modern insecticides – e.g. in th e last several years c oncerns have arisen about potential endocrine system effects (“endocrine disrupters ”) associated with certain types of pesticides (or with their accompanyi ng synergists or other additive ingredients), which probably bears objective tracking and furt her scientific inquiry. However, it is fairly safe to say that the benefits of judiciously using modern-day pesticides to help meet important societal needs (e.g. mosquito control, rodent contro l, disease prevention, crop production, food storage, timber pr oduction, structural building protection, landscaping needs, etc.) fa r outweigh any known risks for EPA-registered products

, since the EPA’s product registra tion or re-registration proces s over the past 35 years has taken almost all previously-used “bad actor ” pesticides off the market, and has not knowingly let any new “bad actor” products into the market.

As such, in today’s era of heightened environmental concerns, almost all remaining potential problems for human health or non-target organism impacts caused by mosquito control spraying primarily arise from human mistakes or a pplication errors that might be made in the rate of application (e.g. spray equipment cal ibration errors), the timing or place of application (e.g. accidentally repetitively swathing the same area), or with other operational asp ects of performing spraying (e.g. spraying when too windy or not windy enough), all which can be readily av oided when product label instructions are scrupulously followed, and applications are made by dedicated, trai ned professionals. Mosquito Control Section staff and our contractual spray applicators are all knowledgeable professionals certified by the Delaware Department of Agriculture for using insecticides in pr oper and safe manner.

In closing our comments about this FAQ, it should be noted that a very small segment of the public might be hyper- or chemo-sensitive to the insecticide products that we use (as well as perhaps also adversel y reactive to other type s of chemicals in the environment), particularly our adulticides fo r which people are much more likely to be17 exposed in contrast to our la rvicides. Such hyper- or chem o-sensitive individuals might experience allergic-like reactions to our spraying, perhaps consisting of irritated eyes or throat, sneezing, coughing or other mild symp toms. If you experience such discomfort during or immediately after a mosquito contro l spraying, then you’re unfortunately one of the very few who might well be concerned a bout exposures to our treatments. In the unusual event that you are experiencing adve rse health effects following insecticide application, you should consult your personal physician or seek other medical care. You will also find information in FAQs #6 and #7 below that should help you (and us) better contend with your individual probl em, including how to avoid exposures to our spraying.

More information about the insecticides we use and their safety can be found on

the Mosquito Control Section’s website at http://www.fw.delaware.gov/Services/Pages/MosquitoSection.aspx . The phone number

to contact the Section’s administrative headquarters in Dover is 302-739-9917 . If you

want information about the State of Delaware ’s pesticide oversigh t/regulatory program, you should contact the Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Compliance Section in

Dover at 302-698-4500 . If you have questions or want more information about any possible human health impacts of exposure to our insecticide produc ts, you can call the Division of Public Health, Environmental Health Evaluation Branch in Dover at 302-

744-4546 . Information about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) positions on mosquito control insecticid es can be found on the EPA website at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/mosquitoes/ . The Mosquito Cont rol Section is also a participating affiliate of the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) , and the AMCA in turn participates in the EPA’s Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program (PESP) , which encourages safe use and good stewardship of our insecticide tools – more information about the AMCA and its PESP partnership with the EPA is

available on the AMCA’s website at http://www.mosquito.org. Information about nontarget impacts of pesticides can also be found at the EXTOXNET website (a consortium of academic research institutions) at http://www.ace.orst.edu/info/extoxnet/

.

6) How can I found out when and where mosquito control spraying might next be

done?

If you want to know about when a mosquito control spraying might occur in your area, for whatever reasons or interest you might have, you can receive our daily spray
announcements automatically on your home or business computer (via e-mail notification over the Internet) by subs cribing to our Mosquito Control listserver at http://www.dnrec.state.de.us/DNREC2000/admin/maillists/maillists.htm

. Because of many complicating factors in planning, prep aring and performing our often daily spray operations (such as varying locations or intens ities of mosquito probl ems that often aren’t known by our field inspections until the last mi nute, but which then need rapid response, or our having to contend with fluctuating wind or weather conditions ), the most advance notice that we can routinely give might be up to 24 hours lead time, but sometimes it might be as short as only 4 hours notice (thi s short lead time obviously negates us being able to give any effective advance notice of our spray plans in daily newspapers). You can also directly electroni cally access the Mosquito Control Section's updated advance18 spray announcements at your convenience, by contacting the Section’s website at http://www.dnrec.state.de.us/dnrec20 00/Applications/Mosquito/index.asp.

If you don’t have a computer or lack access to the Internet, or if you prefer not to use such electronic approaches, you can listen to one of several radio stations that as public service announcements often broadcast Mosquito Control's current plans for upcoming sprays. On a daily basis we su bmit our spray announcements to over 12 radio stations around the state, but unfortunately we have no control over if, when or how often these stations might run our spray notices.

We also have a toll-free phone line at 1-800-338-8181 that you can call as often as you like, to listen to our taped spray announcements that are updated daily.

If you live within an incor porated city or town, by our Spray Policy we routinely notify designated local officials in advance of almost all of spray operations occurring within city or town limits. In many cases it wi ll also be these local city or town officials who initially requested our spray services. In turn, municipal offici als might then try to provide further advance spray notifications to their consti tuents, so you might want to check with your local city or town officers.

Finally, with the terrorism events of “9-11” (September 11, 2001 in New York City and Washington, D.C.) having caused much heightened concern about many security issues, it’s important for the public to know that when they observe our lowflying aircraft or “fog trucks ” going about our business of sp raying mosquitoes, “it’s just us” doing what we’re charged to do. In orde r to help accomplish this awareness for the public and other agencies too, we now routin ely also inform the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) about our sp raying operations, among several federal, state or county agencies for which we rou tinely provide such information.

7) If I don’t want to be exposed to mosquito control spraying, what steps might I take?

No matter what the scientific evidence indicates about th e safety of the Mosquito Control Section’s using modern-day mosquito control insecticides, nor no matter what learned professionals might say, there will probably still be people who for whatever

reasons will still want to avoid having any exposure to our insecticides (and yet somewhat ironically, many of these same people will also want mosquito relief, if not openly seeking such, at least no t objecting to such when it’s achieved). But such desires for no spray contact or exposure are by no means insincere or completely unfounded. From a medical standpoint, there is a very small segment of the public who might be hyper- or chemo-sensitive to exposure to some of our insecticides (particularly for some of our adulticides, for which exposure is mu ch more likely than having contact with our larvicides), resulting in alle rgic-like reactions for these peop le that might involve eye or throat irritation, sneezing, coughing or other symptoms – e.g. some people with asthma might be more sensitive here. Despite what the EPA has determined regarding the overall safety of our mosquito control produc ts for a vast majority of the public, we recognize that there are a few individuals who might have mildly adverse physical19 reactions to the products we use, and as such we attempt to accommodate these individuals the best we can, while still de livering quality-of-life and mosquito-borne disease prevention services for th e vast majority of the public.

We also try to accommodate to the extent practicable, in keeping with our best serving the needs of th e general public, those organic gardeners or produce growers who by the conditions of how they want to grow or market their agricultural products try to do this in as pesticide-free ma nner as possible. And through the Delaware Department of Agriculture and the Delaware Beekeepers Association , we also have a working agreement and notif ication protocols with commercial beekeepers , whereby through some mutually proactive measures th ey can be kept appr aised of our pending spray operations, to help avoid any adverse im pacts to their beehives or colonies.

Individuals who for whatever reasons ar e still concerned about exposure to the insecticides applied by the Mo squito Control Section, partic ularly for adulticides, can take some common-sense steps to avoid direct exposure to our spray applications, such as temporarily leaving an area about to be sprayed, or by remaining indoors and closing doors and windows, plus shutting off window air conditioners, during and immediately after insecticide spraying. The general times and locations for knowing about the Section’s pending spray operations can be de termined through various media devices and other means as described in FAQ #6 above.

The Section will also consider special requests to establish a “No-Spray Zone,” where mosquito control adultici des (insecticides applied to control adult mosquitoes) are not applied to your location. Decisions on gr anting No-Spray Zone requests are made by the Mosquito Control Section in consid eration of a citizen ’s or resident’s stated purpose for making such a request; whether such a request can be practicably accommodated by our application equipment and within our application operations; and whether not spraying your location will unreasonably deny your neighbors or your community of their desired mosquito control services. In regard to the last factor, our possibly granting a No-Spray Zone will result in no mosquito control treatment either for your neighbors or other properties within se veral hundred feet of a No-Spray Zone’s epicenter. This then obviously in some situations could become contentious, and lead to some “neighbor problems” not always easy to resolve.

By our Spray Policy, requests for No-Spr ay Zones by citizens or residents living within an incorporated municipality (city or town), applicable only to use of adulticides, must be made to the Mosquito Cont rol Section by a municipal official (on their constituent’s behalf), with the municipality then obviously being in concurrence with such a request, and with the municipality also providing all the information required for the Mosquito Control Section to make its decisi on. As such, a citi zen or resident of a municipality wishing to have a No-Spray Zone established around his/her residence or property should first contact an approp riate municipal offi cial and obtain the municipality’s support or concur rence. Conversely in unin corporated areas, citizens or residents wishing to request a No-Spray Zone, again applicable only to use of adulticides, may do so by directly contacting the Mos quito Control Section. In all cases for20 unincorporated areas, only the actual property owner can make the No-Spray Zone request (i.e. not a renter, tenant , vacationer, visitor, etc.).

Information requested to be provided in a No-Spray Zone request, whether coming from a municipal official for a citizen of a city or town, or from property owner themselves in unincorporated areas, is pret ty straight-forward, involving items such as name, address, and phone number of propert y owner making the request; purpose for making the request; description and map show ing property’s location; names, addresses and telephone numbers of adjacent property owners; whether the request is for aerial spraying, ground spraying, or both; etc. It is necessary to complete a No-Spray Zone request application each-and-every year that su ch consideration is desired. This is because a property’s ownership might change from year-to-year, or the desire or necessity for having a No-Spray Zone might al so change from year-to-year, and as such there will be no automatic carryover of a previous year’s request for a No-Spray

Zone. It is the responsibility of the municipality or indivi dual desiring a No-Spray Zone designation to provide such notice to the Mo squito Control Secti on in timely manner on an annual basis, which if at all possible should be made by March 1 of each-and-every year when such consideration is desired.

Based upon the information received, the Mosquito Control Section will then make an approve/no-approve decision within a few weeks of receiving the completed application form. In almost all cases, particularly when a medical case of hyper- or chemo-sensitivity is involved, the Section will try its utmost to accommodate the NoSpray Zone request, weighing the good that granting such a request will do for the individual making the request, ve rsus what might be lost in the way of quality-of-life or public health threats to others nearby (in our not being able to treat adjacent or nearby properties). This is by no means always an easy decision to make. And finally, in event

of a declared human health emergency caused by outbreak of mosquito-borne disease,

the Section reserves the right to cancel any No-Spray Zone status that it might have granted, and to proceed with undertaking wh atever spraying might be necessary to protect the general public’s health during a disease outbreak. However, the Section will attempt to provide advance notice of such cancellation to those people who might now have their No-Spray Zone status cance lled or temporarily lifted.

Additional information on how to request a No-Spray Zone can be obtained by contacting the Mosquito Control Section in New Castle County by calling 302-836-

2555 , and in Kent and Sussex Counties by calling 302-422-1512 . An electronic application form for requesting a No-Spray Zone is also available on the Section’s

website at http://www.dnrec.state. de.us/fw/mcnospray.htm

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8) What personal protection measures can I take to help avoid mosquito bites?

Probably the simplest action whenever possible is to try to avoid areas or times where mosquitoes are most active , such as near coastal marshes, wet woodlands or other swampy locations. But as was pointed out in FAQ #2 above, many mosquito species are long-distance fliers, and as such will often come find you.21 If you happen to live in a mosquito-prone ar ea or have occasion to visit such, then your next line of defense is try to stay indoors if possibl e during peak mosquito activity , which for many species is near dusk, duri ng the evening or night, and into early morning. Using and keeping your door and wi ndow screens in good repair is an obvious measure. [In many areas, folks who are fort unate enough to have screened-in porches are very grateful they do!] Wherever mosquitoes might still be a problem inside a residence, the old practice of using mosquito bed-net ting could be resurrected. However, some particularly troublesome species, such as th e common saltmarsh mosquito or the Asian tiger mosquito, are also very active daytime biters -- since many people must be outside and active during the day, the avoidance measures above don’t have much applicability.

The type of clothing you wear can also help to reduce mosquito bites. If it’s not too hot or uncomfortable, consider wearing long-sleeve shirts and pants when outside. Wearing light-colored clothing also helps (in particular, avoid red colors). If the mosquito infestation is truly bad and you must remain outside, you might want to consider using a fine-mesh head net, or a mesh “shoo-bug jacket” treated or impregnated with a repellent. Using yellow light bulbs for outside lighting might also help.

Avoiding outside activities th at require a lot of exertion and hence generate a lot of carbon dioxide, a powerful natural mosquito attractant, is also advisable in mosquitoinfested areas. Physical exertion also produces body heat and lactic acid in sweat, which are also attractants for mosquitoes. Also do not use strong-smelling perfumes or cologne, nor fragrant soaps, shampoos or hairsprays.

Probably the most common remedy for conten ding with having to work, live or recreate outdoors in mosquito-infested areas is the use of some type of chemical repellent . Scientific studies have shown that by fa r the most effective types of repellents are commercially-available, over-the-counter products that contain the chemical DEET (e.g. OFF, Cutter, Muskol, Ben’s, 6-12, Sawy er). Other types of repellents are also available, including certain br ands of cosmetic creams that might have some repellent effect (e.g. Avon Skin-So-Soft), or various “natural” oils, spices or ot her extracts (e.g. eucalyptus oil, lemongrass, pennyroyal, al lspice, bay, camphor, cinnamon, citronella, geranium, lavender, nutmeg, peppermint, pine, thyme). However, most scientific evidence shows most of them to be of compar atively little or only marginal effectiveness – nonetheless, the bottomline here is to use whatever you think or “know” works best for

you.

There is a very small percentage of pe ople who might have some adverse health reactions to high concentrati ons of DEET (e.g. 50-100%), so as a general rule it is

recommended that adults use repellents containing a DEET concentration of 30% or less, and for children the concen tration should be 10% or less

. Do not use DEET on infants under 2 years old. From the standpoint of health pr ecautions, it is better to more frequently apply formulations with lower DEET concentrations, versus infrequently applying formulations with higher DEET con centrations. Be sure to follow all application instructions on a repellent’s label. If you wa nt to avoid using DEET-based22 repellents all together, the EPA has recently determined that two other products also provide some effective relief – picari din and oil of lemon eucalyptus.

Another type of chemical defense is to spray clothing with permethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid (e.g. Permanone), which actually functions as both an insecticide and a repellent, and is also used to help prevent ti ck problems. If permethrin is used, it should be applied only to clothing and never directly to skin, and all instruct ions for use must be closely followed.

Finally, there are other measures that you can take around your home or property to reduce mosquito bites that were discussed in FAQ #1 above (i.e . practice good water

sanitation ), as well as perhaps taking some m easures discussed in FAQ #4 that have much lower abatement effects (e.g. purple martin colonies, bat houses, mosquito collection/killing traps) -- at the risk of repe tition, the true effectiveness of these latter methods is quite dubious rela tive to the level of relief needed or sought. Some people also find that burning certain materials (e.g. citronella candles, sticks or coils) to be of some limited help in keeping mosquitoes away from their personal airspace. It is known that Native Americans tried such smoky a pproaches (e.g. “smudge pots”) to achieve some skeeter relief (if they could stand the smoke and smell), but during seasons of peak mosquito activity some tribes were also in the smart habit of relocating their villages to less mosquito-prone sites. For most modern Americans this type of ready residential movement is no longer an option, which is part of the reason for our Section’s existence

and mission.

9) What do I do if I find a sick/dead wild bird that might have West Nile virus?

As discussed in FAQ #2 above, th e recent arrival in Delaware of West Nile virus (WNV) is a cause for some concern, and part of the approach to dealing with the problem involves an expanded virus surveillance/m onitoring program being conducted by the Mosquito Control Section. The public can be of great help to us on a statewide basis in conducting this expanded effort. If you find a dead or sick bird that you think could have been affected by WNV, please follow th e protocols discussed below. While WNV has now been documented in bats, chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons, skunks, domestic rabbits and cats, as an indicator of the virus’ spread and prevalence, the Mosquito Control

Section still remains interested only in birds as a tracking or diagnostic tool, and only for certain species of birds at that.

First, a determination (to the best of one ’s ability) should be made as to what species of bird you have. Crows, blue jays, cardinals, robins, and birds-of-prey (hawks, eagles, falcons or owls) have shown to be quite susceptible species for WNV, and are therefore the primary bird species co llected. Of these species, crows seem to be the most commonly affected and reported. Cr ows can be identified by their large size (approx. 12-16” in total length, or about the si ze of a football), matted black color (even their eyes), large beak (1-2” l ong), etc. Blue jays are sma ller than crows, with mostly blue, black and white feathers . Most people know how to re cognize a cardinal or robin, at least for males of these sp ecies. Birds-of-prey can be r ecognized by their large, sharp23 claws and hooked beaks. These are the only bird species (when found singly or in numbers less than five) that should be reported to the Mosquito Control Section. However, citizens should feel fr ee to report localized occurrences or clusters of 5 or more sick or dead specimens of any bird species, which in observing might be associated with some type of exposure or problem not re lated to WNV (e.g. possi bly some type of pesticide poisoning), which might then be of in terest to other agencies, such as DNREC’s Wildlife Section or the Delaware Department of Agriculture.

Secondly, it should be determined if the bird has been dead less than 24 hours

. Current testing techniques require that sp ecimen birds be fresh for accurate virus

detection. A relative scale such as “the bird was not in your yard when you left for work in the morning, but was there when you returned home in the evening” would be fine for knowing the bird is probably less than 24 hours old. Dead birds that are infested with maggots, or which have deeply sunken eyes or whose feathers are in poor condition, are specimens that have probably been dead for too long for any worthwhile analyses.

After the above criteria have been met, the bird should be covered if possible by a bucket, box, trash can lid, or other type of c overing to protect it from further degradation by sunlight, direct heat, flies, scavenging an imals, etc. As a general precaution when handling any dead animal, it is recommended that you do not have any bare-handed contact or otherwise directly handle the bird , even though from what is known about WNV you could not contract the disease by doing so. [To date, there has been no indication of any animal-to-human tran smission of WNV, or person-to-person transmission not involving an organ transpla nt or blood donation.] A call should then be placed to the Mosquito Control Section under the following guideli nes. If the bird is

found in New Castle County , call 836-2555 during weekday hours between 8:00 am4:00 pm . The same reporting criteria s hould be used for birds found in Kent or Sussex

Counties , but call 422-1512 instead.

10) What are human health problems/symptoms when a mosquito-borne viral disease is contracted? And what is the probab ility of my becoming infected or sick?

As mentioned in FAQ #2 above, the primar y mosquito-borne disease concerns in Delaware for humans are now eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile virus (WNV), with EEE being much more virulent than WNV, but fo rtunately also less common. Insects such as mosqu itoes are part of a larger phylum of invertebrates called arthropods, and arthropod-borne viruses are known in genera l as arboviruses. Arboviral encephalatides such as EEE and WNV are viruse s that in their worst manifestation cause encephalitis , which is a swelling of the brain havi ng severe health consequences. [When the brain swelling is also associated with inflammation of the br ain’s outer lining and spinal cord, the condition beco mes meningoencephalitis.]

A large majority of people infected with WNV apparently might never know they’ve been infected, in that they feel no adverse effects whatsoever (i.e. they’re asymptomatic), or they have only mild overa ll discomfort that’s not severe enough for24 them to seek any medical attention; however, this is relatively benign reaction is rarely

the case with EEE.

When symptoms are first felt for eith er WNV or EEE, early indications of infection include headache, mild fever, body aches, malaise, and occasional swollen lymph glands, all which are flu-like sympto ms (as such, if you live in an area where mosquitoes are abundant, you might want to be somewhat suspicious if you or someone you know comes down with a “summer flu,” a nd seek medical care). These early symptoms might occur from 7-10 days after re ceiving an infectious bite, and might come on slowly or quite suddenly. [The most probabl e time of year in Delaware to contract an arbovirus is during late summer and early fall, from about the last week in July through early October.] A more vi rulent infection for WNV or EEE can progress to severe headache, high fever, neck stiffness, and muscular weakness, and cause behavioral changes including stupor, confusion and disorien tation. Patients with these more severe symptoms are often recognized as neuroinvasive cases, in that nervous system functions have become affected or impaired. Pr ogressing to full-blown encephalitis, which fortunately is a rare occurrence, can then cause tremors, convulsions, coma and paralysis. Death occurs in about 5% of patients with full-blown WNV, with any fatalities most common in people >50 years old and those with impaired immune systems. Full-blown EEE is more fatal, with death occurring in up to 30% of young adult or middle-aged patients, and up to a 70% fatality rate in childr en or the elderly. For patients who do not die from full-blown encephalitis (whether caused by WNV or EEE), after-effects usually involve long-term or perman ent neurological damage or sequelae, sometimes having debilitating consequences.

Since arboviral encephalatides are viral di seases, trying to use antibiotics to treat WNV or EEE is not effective, and no effective antiviral drug s have yet been discovered. For full-blown encephalitis, the best that physic ians can do is try to treat the symptoms and problems associated with brain swelling, deal with associated complications where treatable (e.g. bacterial pneumonia), and hope fo r the best. No human vaccines yet exist for WNV or EEE, although effective vaccine s for both viruses are now available for

horses .

Fortunately, transmission of EEE to humans is naturally a relatively rare event, and modern mosquito control programs along th e East Coast work hard to make such events even rarer. A major impetus for the st art of modern mosquito control programs in the Mid-Atlantic region was the 1959 EEE out break in Cape May County, New Jersey that occurred around Labor Day, leading to the deaths of over 20 victims and hospitalizations of over 100 people (along with some severe economic consequences for a tourism-based area). Even with a subse quent expansion and incr eased effectiveness of mosquito control programs in the Mid-Atla ntic, localized EEE outbreaks have occurred since then, not only in New Jersey but al so in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, upstate New York, southeastern Virginia, a nd northeastern North Carolina. Fortunately,

the numbers of human cases in these EEE out breaks were relatively low. The most

recent documented human case of EEE in Delaware occurred in the mid-1980's -- the Mosquito Control Section takes considerable pride in our keeping things this way, such25 that EEE does not have major impacts on Delawareans, with the chances of you contracting EEE exceedingly small.

The introduction of WNV into the Unite d States (and really anywhere in the Western Hemisphere) occurred in the New York City area duri ng the summer of 1999 (causing 62 hospitalizations and 7 deaths at that time). Over the span since 1999, the virus has spread southward and westward acr oss the country -- WNV human cases have now been reported in all lower 48 states with exception of Maine. The total number of reported annual WNV human cases and fatali ties across the U.S. is shown below from

1999-2007:

1999 = 62 cases, 7 deaths 2000 = 21 cases, 2 deaths 2001 = 66 cases, 9 deaths 2002 = 4156 cases, 284 deaths 2003 = 9862 cases, 264 deaths 2004 = 2359 cases, 100 deaths 2005 = 3000 cases, 119 deaths 2006 = 4269 cases, 177 deaths 2007 = 3630 cases, 124 deaths

Delaware’s first WNV human case occurr ed in 2002, and Delaware’s peak WNV outbreak year for human cases to date happened in 2003, with 17 people reported sickened by WNV (involving 13 neuroinvasive ca ses), leading to 2 deaths. WNV counts in Delaware then declined considerably, with no cases in 2004, 2 cases in 2005, no cases in 2006, and 1 case in 2007, with no more fatali ties. The relatively low numbers of WNV

human cases in Delaware in terms of total numbe rs or per capita reflect the results of the State having a modern-day, comprehensive mo squito control keeping pathogen-vectoring populations of mosquitoes as low as practicab le to do, along with a general subsidence of WNV in the Northeast starting in 2004 (alt hough WNV has continued to flare-up in other areas of the country since the n, particularly in California and upper Great Plains states. The Mosquito Control Section will continue to work hard to try to keep this disease out of our state’s human population for to extent practicable to do.

People can take some comfort that scient ists estimate even in areas where WNV has now become established, probably less than 1% of the mosquito populations that can carry this virus are infected, and that if you ar e unlucky to be bitten by one of these <1%, there’s then only about a 1% ch ance that you’ll become severely ill. With the Mosquito Control Section aggressively taking measur es (as described in FAQs #1, 2, 3, and 4 above) to reduce the frequency and intensity th at you might get bit [note: if there are no or only a few bites to start with, then the naturally small chance of your ever encountering an infected mosquito goes almost to zero], along with your also taking some personal protection measures on your own (as de scribed in FAQ #8 above), the chance of your ever contracting WNV is truly exceedingly small.26 Additional information about the human health problems/symptoms of WNV, or concerns for its possible contrac tion, can be obtained by calling the Delaware Division

of Public Health (Epidemiology Branch) at its office in Dover at 302-744-4541

.

11) There are a lot of biting flies around my house or yard that I don’t like (or gnats, or ticks, or wasps, etc.). Can’t Mosqu ito Control do something to get rid of them?

While the Mosquito Control Section freque ntly receives calls fo r help not related to mosquito problems, unfortunately the answer here is NO (even if you get mad at us). By our enabling State statute, for pest mana gement purposes we are charged with and only allowed to take actions that control mosqu itoes. Given the varied and vast amounts of mosquito-breeding habitats in Delaware a nd the long flight ranges of some mosquito species, plus the State’s high human populati on density, coupled with the intolerable quality-of-life and human health threats that severe mosquito infestations can cause, our just battling mosquitoes gives us plenty to do. Our trying to attend to any other pest problems would be beyond our capabilities in terms of time, staffing, budget or other resources, and legally not in our authority to do anyhow. But this doesn’t mean that we still can’t provide you some advice or guidance, which we do below.

There are many species of b iting flies in Delaware – greenhead flies in or near saltmarshes; deer flies where forested edges or shrubby areas abut marshes or open fields, especially along the coast; horse or stable f lies around farms; and shore flies that can be quite annoying ankle-level biters along our beaches. Biting gnats (punkies or no-seeums) at times can be very annoying, especi ally in late spring and early summer along tidal wetland margins or near other watery /muddy areas. In recent years the public has

become much more aware of tick-borne problems because of the emergence and widespread nature in Delaware of Lyme di sease, spread by the very small deer tick, which can also transmit human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE); other tick-borne

concerns in Delaware are associated with the wood or dog tick, as a carrier of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and the lone star tick, capable of transmitting human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME). Calls will also come to us for what to do about problems with bees, hornets, wasps, yellow jackets, velvet ants, et c., which can be a special concern to those individuals susceptible to an aphylactic shock from their s tings. We’ll occasionally get questions about chiggers (“red bugs”), or if the spider that somebody saw in their storage shed was a black widow. We’ve also taken que ries as far afield as gypsy moth spraying, or dealing with concerns about rabies transmission. Even calls about bats in the attic, skunks under the porch, snakes in the crawlspace, beavers flooding the driveway, or moles in the lawn have come our way. W ithout spending an inor dinate amount of time trying to explain to the public that we’re no t the agency or personne l to call about such problems or issues, we still courteously and patiently try to point these often distraught callers in the right directi on, concerning both what we can and can’t do, and who they might want to contact next.

We recommend that for many non-mosquito pest problems a first point-of-contact

be the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension Service , with the Extension Service having offices in all 3 counties. Expert agents in the Cooperative Extension27 Service can give you advice about how to handl e that wasp or hornet problem, or how to lessen biting fly problems (e.g. they ca n give you a handout showing you how to construct a fly box trap for reducing greenhead fly populations adjacent to saltmarshes). If you bring in the tick that you found crawling in your bed or that you pulled off your leg, or a specimen of any othe r type of unknown insect, spider, or invertebrate critter of interest that you might have in -hand, they can usually have it identified for you. The Extension Service is also the obvious place to call for questions about garden or ornamental plant pests, as we ll as agricultural crop pests. The Extension Service phone

number to call in New Castle County is 831-2506 ; for Kent County call 730-4000 ; for Sussex County call 856-7303

.

For additional questions rela ted to agricultural, forest or ornamental plant pests, including concerns about gyps y moths, one can call the Delaware Department of Agriculture offices in Dover at 739-4811 . For wildlife-oriented pest problems or rabies, we suggest that you start by calling our Division’s Wildlife Section , with offices in

Dover at 739-9912 . In many cases or situations no matter whom you first contact, the final solution to your problem will often be you’ ll have to try to best handle it by yourself (after getting all th e good advice and guidance you can); or you might have to call upon the professional services of a commercial exterminator or pest control company , who

in almost all cases will know what to do and how to get it done safely.

12) Describe the Mosquito Control Section. Where are you housed? How many people work for you? Where do you work? What do you do in the winter? Who do you work with? Who are your partners? What’s your budget? etc., etc., etc. Essentially, just who are you people?

The Mosquito Control Section is part of DNREC’s Division of Fish and

Wildlife , and has a staff of 21 people working year-around to deal with Delaware’s mosquito problems; additionally, we hire about 15 seasonal employees each year to meet our increased seasonal workloads, usually for the period from April into October, with peak need from May through September. Our year-around staff of 21 consists of a Section administrator, 2 program managers , 3 administrative support professionals, 6 environmental scientists, a field crew s upervisor, 5 heavy equipment operators, an automotive/equipment mechanic, and 2 long- term biological aides. Our 15 summer seasonals are primarily used as field inspecto rs, mosquito trap colle ctors, or members of

our virus surveillance teams. One of our seasonals works as the Section’s taxonomist/counter for sorting and identifying light trap collections, stationed at the University of Delaware’s Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology on the Newark campus. [Sidebar note – during the earl y days of organized mosquito control in Delaware going back to the 1930’s, the Ci vilian Conservation Corps employed hundreds of young men in mosquito control work, to dig by hand and primitive machinery the State’s parallel-grid-ditch network, the remnants of which are still qui te visible over tens of thousands of acres of our tidal wetlands.]

Aerial spraying of insecticides, whether done by fixed-wing aircra ft or helicopter, is all contractually performed by private professional aerial applicators , who28 throughout our control season ar e available on short-term standby basis to meet our spraying needs. When and where to perfor m aerial spraying and what products/rates to use are solely the calls of our Mosquito Control staff, and as such we do each spraying’s technical planning and follow-up for quality c ontrol checks, as well as provide general oversight throughout each spray operation. While these private aerial applicators are not actually part of our Section staff, by the natu re of what we must do, we have very close working relationships and interactions with our contractors at all times. All truckmounted spraying (ground “fogging”) is directly performed by Mosquito Control staff.

The Section has three fac ilities from which we conduct our statewide program.

There is an administrative H.Q. office in Dover at DNREC’s headquarters (739-9917);

a field operations center for New Castle County and northwestern Kent County in Glasgow (836-2555); and a field operations center for the remainder Kent County and all of Sussex County in Milford (422-1512);

Mosquito Control Section personnel have statewide responsibilities for controlling mosquitoes wherever they presen t problems to people, in urban, suburban or rural settings. Our staff work up-and-down the state from Wilmington to Odessa to Smyrna to Dover to Milford to Georgetown to Selbyville; and across-the-state from New Castle to Hockessin, Delaware City to Newark, Port Penn to Middletown, Kitts Hummock to Hartly, Bowers Beach to Felt on, Slaughter Beach to Harrington, Lewes to Greenwood, Rehoboth Beach to Bridgeville, Bethany Beach to Seaford, and Fenwick

Island to Laurel. Because of the millions of summer vacationers, visitors and tourists coming to Delaware’s beach resort communitie s, coupled with lots of nearby prime salt marsh breeding habitats, the coastal strip from Lewes to Fenwick Island and areas around the Inland Bays are given special attention, but this doesn’t come at undue expense for meeting the statew ide control needs of our many other constituents too. Special attention is also gi ven to mosquito control on Delaware’s two National Wildlife Refuges , with mosquitoes produced from Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge capable of causing problems for people all al ong the eastern side of the Greater DoverSmyrna area; and mosquitoes produced from Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge capable of doing the same for people in the Milford-Milton-Lewe s area, including the bayfront communities from Slaughter Beach to Broadkill Beach. [Indeed, it is only by our having excellent working relati onships and cooperation with the U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service that the Section is able control Refuge-produced mosquitoes while the skeeters are still on-Refuge (at least for the most part), much to the relief of residents and visitors up to several miles away from a Re fuge’s borders.] Overall, our “Mosquito Control District” encompasses about 2000 square miles , providing control services to

about 850,000 residents and millions of summer visitors

.

While the Mosquito Control Section’s active field surveillance/monitoring and insecticide treatment programs last for a bout 8 months, from around mid-March into midNovember, the Section continues to work hard year-around doing a variety of tasks. For example, source reduction work, such as Open Marsh Water Management (OMWM) and coastal impoundment management in part icular (as described in FAQ #4 above), occurs all year long, weather permitting. Wetland habitat restoration or enhancement29 projects , often done in collaboration with our colleagues in the Division’s Wildlife or Fisheries Sections , also occur throughout the year. The 4 “winter months” from midNovember through mid-March are also the time of year when the Section is able to accomplish a lot of tasks that we simply don’t have the luxury to get done during the

“heat” of our annual “skeeter wars” – e.g. this is time of year for short-term and longterm strategic planning, implementing f acilities improvements or upgrades, taking inventories, making major machinery repairs, doing routine mainte nance to insecticide spray gear or scientific equipment, performi ng research analyses, wr iting reports, tending to personnel matters, preparing permit app lications, drafting c ontracts, attending scientific/technical meetings, making budget pr ojections, etc. We often find that our spring woodland-pool control program, which ki cks-off in mid-March, is all too soon upon us once again. There truly is no “ downtime” for us throughout the year.

In carrying out our mosquito control act ivities, the Mosquito Control Section often comes in contact with, or has the oppor tunity to work with, many other programs within the Delaware Department of Natu ral Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), not just within our own Division of Fish and Wildlife (D FW), but within all the other DNREC Divisions too. For instance, the Mosquito Control Section is the lead DNREC agency for the Department’s “Northern Delaware Wetlands Rehabilitation Program” (NDWRP) , in which the Department has unde rtaken a long-term commitment to try to restore over 10,000 acres of degr aded, urbanized coastal wetlands at over 30 sites along the lower Christina-Delaware Ri ver corridor. Besides working with our colleagues in the Division and throughout DNREC too in undertaking this NDWRP work, for many NDWRP project planning and construction task s we also work closely

with the New Castle Conservat ion District.

We are close partners with our Division’s Wildlife Section in undertaking Phragmites control projects, and with our Wildlife and Fisheries Sections for coastal impoundment management . In going about our day-to-day business, we also routinely interact with our Division’s Natural Heritage Program and our Non-Game and Endangered Species Program , to help ensure that our control activities do not adversely impact species or habitats of sp ecial concern, and wherever possible in our marsh management work that steps are taken to protect or enhance biodiversity

.

In undertaking our wetlands management work, we interact with DNREC’s Division of Air and Waste Management (DAWM) for marsh rest oration projects in

association with the De partment’s undertaking Superfund site restoration projects, to help the DAWM achieve resource compensation for third party-caused natural resource injuries. We also interact with the DAWM in regard to trying to regulate or better control problems that are caused by scrap tire piles – tire piles providing prolific mosquito-breeding habitat is but one of their several problems.

We interact with DNREC’s Division of Soil and Water Conservation (DSWC) regarding the design and management of stormwater management basins , to try to lessen mosquito production problems while stil l retaining other good at tributes of these desirable man-made water quality features. Mosquito Control also works collaboratively30 within the limit of our discretionary resources with the DSWC’s floodwater relief/drainage program, to help the DSWC achieve for site-specific projects its floodwater relief/drainage objectives. Such work is of ten done without primarily or directly serving any mosquito control purposes, but rather we assist the DSWC due to the availability of our unique heavy marsh equipm ent and our equipment operator expertise. Nothing that we do in collaboration with the DSWC in regard to any floodwater relief/drainage projects is done without th e DSWC first securing all necessary landowner permission/cooperation, plus acquiring any needed wetlands or subaqueous lands regulatory permits. We also interact with the DSWC’s Delaware Coastal Management Program and its Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve about a variety of coastal zone policy issues a nd operational practices.

Mosquito Control works closely w ith DNREC archaeologists in the Division of

Parks and Recreation (DPR) to help ensure that our excavation activities don’t jeopardize historical or cultural resources , and that anything we might find actually adds to our knowledge of this resource base.

The Mosquito Control Section al so works closely with DNREC’s Division of

Water Resources (DWR), Wetlands and Subaqueous Lands Section , in regard to wetlands permitting needs and a host of associated wetlands regulatory issues (including wetlands protection ini tiatives), and in regard to water quality concerns.

For purposes of public information and education and media outreach, we work closely with DNREC’s Public Affairs Office

.

Besides interacting with our sister ag encies within DNREC, we also have interactions with several other state ag encies. For example, in regard to pesticide use and state regulatory issues , we interact with the Delaware Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Compliance Section . To help avoid any problems with our spray operations affecting commercial beekeeping operations , the Mosquito Control Section has developed a set of pr ocedures and protocols with the Delaware Department of Agriculture (State Apiarist) and the Delaware Beekeepers Association , designed to prevent or alleviate potential problems.

As part of the Mosquito Control Secti on’s virus surveillance/monitoring program, the Section contracts and closely works with the Delaware Division of Public Health Laboratory for analyses of sentinel chicken blo od samples and dead wild bird specimens that we collect and submit, plus for analyses of any mosquito colle ctions (“pools”) that we might collect and submit. To help the State get a better handle on dealing with West Nile virus problems and issues, the Mosquito Control Section is an active partner in the State’s tri-Department “West Nile Virus Work Group,” which besides DNREC also

involves the Department of Health and Social S ervices (Division of Public Health, Epidemiology Branch) and the Department of Agriculture (State Veterinarian) . To help address concerns about any possible human health or environmental non-target impacts of our insecticide use, we work closely with the Division of Public Health’s

Environmental Health Evaluation Branch

.31 Concerns about potential impacts to hist orical or cultural resources in our undertaking OMWM or wetlands re storation work also cause us to interface with the

Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs’ State Hi storic Preservation Office (SHPO).

On the federal side, in addition to our interactions with the U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service that we already mentioned above (regarding mosquito control needs on our two National Wildlife Refuges), we also interact with the Army Corps of Engineers regarding mosquito control prob lems occurring on the Corps’ dredge disposal sites . As mentioned in FAQ #4 above, all of our Open Marsh Water Management (OMWM)

wetland alterations are done unde r regulatory oversight by the Delaware Mosquito Control Advisory Committee (DMCAC), consisting of four federal agencies ( Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,

National Marine Fisheries Service ), four DNREC agencies ( Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Natural Heritage Program, Di vision of Water Resources’ Wetlands and Subaqueous Lands Section, Division of Soil and Water Conservation’s Delaware Coastal Management Program, Division of Parks and Recreation’s Cultural and

Historical Resources Section ), and the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).

The Mosquito Control Section is a very active participant in the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA), which is a scientific/management organization of over 1600 professionals from hundreds of mosquito control programs around the country and world (from over 50 countrie s), academia, government, and industry. Through active participation in the AMCA, the Section has the opportunity for input and influence regarding national or regional issu es with several federal agencies – e.g. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fi sh and Wildlife Service, Department of Health and Human Services (Centers for Disease Control), and Department of Agriculture . In regard to legislative issues, our participation in the AMCA also provides us with additional avenues of communication with Congress (pri marily through

AMCA-coordinated actions with our two Se nators, our Representative, and their legislative aides), along with of c ourse the access we have through the Governor’s Washington Office. Besides interacting at the national level via the AMCA, the Mosquito Control Section is also a member program in the Mid-Atlantic Mosquito

Control Association (MAMCA), and we also interact with our colleagues in the New Jersey Mosquito Control Association (NJMCA). Our professional staff are also

members of other scientific organizations such as the Society for Vector Ecology , the

Estuarine Research Federation , and the Society of Wetland Scientists

.

In undertaking our control work, the Mosquito Control Section also has

considerable interactions with the private sector , in that indeed this is our primary constituency (i.e. th e public). Our Open Marsh Wate r Management (OMWM) projects are undertaken only after first having the pe rmission and cooperation from the private

landowners who own much of Delaware’s coastal wetlands. In doing these OMWM projects, we have cooperativ ely worked on lands owned by The Nature Conservancy or by Delaware Wildlands, Inc. ; and we have partnered with Ducks Unlimited for the32 support of other OMWM work and impoundment management projects too. Partnerships for some of our private lands restoration work have also been formed through auspices of

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Wildlife program.

Depending upon available funding, the Mosqu ito Control Section also helps to plan, coordinate and participat e in applied mosquito biology or mosquito control research projects with faculty or re search associates of the University of Delaware’s Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology . We also interact with faculty or research

associates of the University of Delaware’s College of Marine and Earth Studies for conducting applied research regarding wetlands ecology or management.

The Mosquito Control Section operates on an annual General Fund budget of

about $2.0 million dollars per year. For the past several year s, we have also received

about $100,000 per year in federal funds from the Centers for Disease Control to help with WNV surveillance/monitoring, laborat ory testing, and applied research. These

federal funds have come to us via the Division of Public Health’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity annual grants that the DPH receives each year from the CDC. In comparison to mosquito control programs in many other areas around the country, whether the comparison is done on a per capita basis or an areal basis, Delaware’s statewide mosquito control program is one of the least expensive, and as such is apparently done quite frugally -- we feel that our approach deliv ers a very good returnon-investment for our citizens, while be ing accomplished in very effective and environmentally-compatible manner.

If you have further questions about the Mosquito Control Se ction, please call our administrative headquarters in Dover at 739-9917

.