Officials gear up for mosquitos

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Spring has arrived, and with it may come rain. With spring and summer monsoons, the moisture brings mosquitoes.

Vector Control agents for Cibola County are preparing to attend the annual licensing school in Albuquerque, April 10-12, said Cibola County Public Works Director Jimmy Chavez.

This is the third year the county will be fighting mosquitoes that may bring the West Nile virus with them. So far, the county has been extremely successful in combating the virus, with only one reported case in 2005, Chavez said.

Vector control agents will aggressively begin spraying larvacide chemicals in April and by the middle to third week of May also start spraying adulticide chemicals to kill mosquitoes both in their larva and adults states, Chavez said.

This spraying and eventually trapping for testing will be done from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., Monday through Friday all summer, he said.

The city of Grants has been cleaning out the Rio San Jose making a significant difference in the area it has already worked on, but it appears the city is not going to clean the worst spot along the river and that is the area between Third and Fifth streets, he said.

"That is a real hot spot for us," he said.

This year, anticipating a wetter year, Chavez said he asked for a 15 percent increase in his $50,000 budget.

Last year the county used about 12 large, 55 gallon drums of insecticide, Chavez said.

This year, because larva are so widespread and many adults are born that haven't been killed by the larvacide, the county is going to add another chemical, "Bactinos Briquets," to fight mosquitoes, Chavez said.

"We toss the briquets into the weeds where the standing water is, and they dissolve over a 30-day period," he said.

Chavez said he thinks this addition will help control the mosquito population better, especially since it appears this will be a wetter spring and summer.

Mosquitoes will be trapped every other week beginning sometime in April or May, he said.

Last year there were nine trappings totaling 3,673 mosquitoes and none tested positive for the virus, Chavez said.

Standing water is the biggest problem, he said. He urged residents to get rid of old tires and drain any standing water on their property to help control the mosquito population.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.