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What You Can Share with Customers …
- Mosquitoes are likely earth’s deadliest animal, based on the various diseases they carry and transmit, such as malaria, yellow fever and various types of viral encephalitis.
- Several of the common mosquito species found in yards in the United States (e.g., Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus) are daytime feeders. Such species are also key vectors of diseases such as West Nile virus, Zika, dengue fever and chikungunya.
- Any container or situation around buildings that can hold water for a minimum of seven days can potentially breed mosquitoes. Customers should be advised to turn containers upside down when storing these outside, and to empty and refill bird feeders and kiddie pools every several days.
- The best way to help avoid mosquito bites is to limit outdoor activities when mosquitoes are active, minimize mosquito breeding sites surrounding buildings, and wear mosquito repellents outdoors.
What You Should Know …
- Female mosquitoes are blood feeders, which must feed on the blood of animals to acquire the nutrients needed to produce eggs.
- The numbers of mosquitoes found in a yard can be reduced through targeted treatment of sites where adult mosquitoes like to rest, particularly under leaves of shrubs and other plants and surfaces in shaded or protected areas (e.g., under decks, walls behind shrubs).
- Aedes and Culex mosquitoes typically do not travel far from where they breed. When found in yards, they are very likely breeding on the property or on neighboring properties.
- Applications to control adult mosquitoes should be directed to the underside of leaves of vegetation. Most resting mosquitoes will be found near ground level up to several feet high.
- Mosquito populations can suddenly bloom a week or so after heavy rains. Rainwater that fills ditches, storm drains and low areas creates sites where mosquitoes will lay eggs.
- Drainage ditches or other locations on a customer’s property that can hold water are prime breeding sites. Take steps to drain or eliminate any type of standing water. Tree holes can be filled with sand to eliminate them as potential breeding sources.
Explore the May 2020 Issue
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