The one thing Harvey didn’t bring? Mosquitoes
Published 2:22 pm Wednesday, October 25, 2017
By David Ball
Mosquitoes need water to breed. Tropical Storm Harvey poured gallons of water on Southeast Texas. Ergo, mosquitoes must be breeding.
Not exactly.
Kevin Sexton, director of Jefferson County Mosquito Control, said surprisingly the mosquito population since Harvey is low.
“There’s not nearly as many as expected,” Sexton said. “With the past storms of Hurricanes Rita and Ike, the coast got big storm surge into the marshes and created a lot of salt marsh mosquitoes. This storm didn’t bring in much surge; it brought in standing water.”
The standing water mosquitoes, meanwhile, didn’t have much time to reproduce due to the water draining. Plus, spraying from C-130 military planes along the coast helped.
“Things have been light,” he said. “There’s no big change in our spraying schedule.”
Mosquito control hasn’t sprayed during the winter months the last couple of years because bugs have been light until spraying resumes in March. There was a mild winter a few years ago and they had to spray throughout winter.
Sexton said he doesn’t totally rely on it, but the Farmer’s Almanac says the region will have a colder than normal winter. The chemicals are only effective up to a certain temperature.
Sexton said one myth is freezing weather will kill mosquito populations.
“It would have to be a sustained hard freeze for days, maybe for weeks to kill mosquitoes,” he said. “There are several types of mosquitoes here and their eggs can lie dormant for years.”
Mosquito control targets both salt marsh mosquitoes and standing water mosquitoes. Their trucks operate Monday through Thursday evenings throughout the season, targeting disease-carrying mosquitoes in drains and traps.
Planes spray for large mosquito populations outside city limits and a larger plane is used inside city limits.
Sexton also confirmed what many Southeast Texans have noticed — an infestation of flies and gnats since Tropical Storm Harvey.
Mosquito control is not set up to kill flies and gnats.
“They’re (flies and gnats) are not our targets,” he said. “I’m not surprised, though, we have so many with all the stuff (debris) along the roadway.”
Residents can practice their own mosquito control by cleaning out containers of water in yards, gutters and low impressions too, to prevent breeding. Tires are good spots for breeding and a mosquito can reach adulthood in a week.
If the tires can’t be emptied, Sexton said putting salt in each tire which can help.
