Personal Communication with Joe Conlon AMCA

August 18, 2009

Would you have an estimate for the cost of mosquito control to various counties?

Unfortunately, not really. Small counties don’t really cost anything out. They may

assign dollar values, but the view is skewed. In 1999, the AMCA asked for information

from mosquito abatement districts and also performed a Freedom of Information Act

(FOIA) request, but received no information in response. We can’t even get information

on something as simple as: do you perform larviciding?

There is some information available on counties annual reports.

I know that Lee County located in Naples, FL performs biological control. But it is a

wildlife refuge. They have 27 aircrafts. Wayne Gale is a contact for them.

In California, Dave Brown is a representative for Kern County moswuito control. They

have a budget of $500,000 and perform significant surveillance and IPM.

These two districts are not representative. Smaller districts just spray on a schedule basis.

There is no trapping data. They have low budgets and are more like mom and pop

operations.

Do you have an idea about the number of mosquito control districts or organizations?

Again no. We do have an AMCA list of mosquito abatement districts by state (see

below), but we have no way of knowing if its updated or correct. There are also agencies

performing mosquito control that are not included (for example counties’ departments of

transits). These groups are not members of the AMCA and not included.

We don’t even know the amount of pesticide being used. It’s kind of embarrassing the

lack of information.

Further Personal Communication:

How many counties or cities are there per district generally?

It’s hard to know. We got the list of mosquito abatement districts and agencies by

querying the regional directors of the AMCA. Some places don’t even have districts. All

entities are at the local level. The 734 districts (left-side) may be counties or may not.

For example, Chesapeake is a city, a large entity, but it counts as one. The local agencies

(right column) are agencies at the local level, small cities or towns. These guys probably

aren’t doing a lot of IPM.

It changes region to region.Midwestern places spray where there is population to merit it.

What about Alaska?
In Alaska, there might be some spraying in Anchorage or Juneau. Maybe public health

departments during mosquito season. But I doubt there is much if any mosquito control

going on.

In the upper northwest (North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin) there is really not much

mosquito control going on. In Minnesota, 1 district covers 7 counties and they do

larvicide, IPM, source reduction and no adulticiding.

Adulticide is performed by small towns or as a last resort. In rural areas, people

generally just deal with it and live with it. For example, there is no mosquito control in

Arkansas.

In the more populous and wealthy states – Florida, Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina,

South Carolina, Georgia – there is well organized mosquito control which utilizes IPM.

Southwest has very few districts. There are no districts in New Mexico or Arizona,

though some may form to address a specific concern.

What about Idaho?

Idaho has several districts.

What about Massachusetts?

Massachustetts has active mosquito control.

And NH?

I’m not aware of any districts.

How do we know if it’s a mosquito control district performing spraying or public health

department?

We don’t necessarily know the breakdown. Mosquito control district might require

adulticiding while a public health department sees no problem and doesn’t care. Really

public health only gets involved when they begin to see human cases of West Nile Virus.

There are also jurisdictional issues. NOIs about spraying get waived if there’s an

emergency situation, but who declares the emergency? Public health departments or

mosquito abatement districts?

Conlon Joseph <conlonamcata@gmail.com>

08/18/2009 01:37 PM

I've attached my listing of mosquito abatement districts and agencies.

List of Mosquito Abatement Districts & Agencies

States Districts Local Agencies

Alabama 5

Alaska

Arizona

California 53 28

Colorado 9

Connecticut 1 statewide 1

Delaware 1 statewide 3
Florida 61 287

Georgia 11

Hawaii1

Idaho 23

Illinois 21

Indiana9

Iowa1

Kansas

Kentucky 1 statewide 15

Louisiana 21

Maine UNK

Maryland 1 statewide

Massachusetts 9 Projects 192

Michigan5 22

Minnesota1 23

Mississippi2

Missouri4 41

Montana 35

Nebraska5

Nevada 17

New Hampshire UNK

New Jersey 21

New Mexico 13

New York5 UNK

North Carolina1 85

North Dakota29

Ohio 107

Oklahoma1

Oregon 18

Pennsylvania6 67

Rhode Island 1 statewide

South Carolina 15 185

South Dakota4

Tennessee1

Texas8 39

Utah 23

Vermont3

Virginia 15

Washington 16

West Virginia

Wisconsin1

Wyoming3

734 1105