Though ample rainfall from flooding has likely provided better growing conditions for plants this spring, the standing water it leaves has also provided ideal conditions for one of the area’s most notorious pests – mosquitoes.
With spring firmly in place and even warmer days already here, plans for what will be this summer's fight against mosquitoes are already underway.
The University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service advises a major part of that battle is to kill the larvae before they have a chance to become adults, Rick Templeton, director of Murfreesboro’s department of streets, explained recently.
To do that, he added, larvicide dunks will again this year be placed in standing water along public rights-of-way where the insects are breeding and, therefore, a problem.
“What we’ll be doing,” Templeton said, “is putting out larvicide – it comes in dunks that look like a donut – in standing water and drainage ditches if they are holding water. That includes retention ponds.
We won’t be applying them to flowing water and we won’t be applying them in water on private property,” Templeton added, “but property owners can purchase these dunks at four or five major retailers around town.”
“Just call the office (893-4380) and we will provide that information,” he said.
For those mosquitoes that do make it to adulthood, the Rutherford County Health Department has some advice. Officials there caution citizens not to venture outside during dusk and dawn times of day when mosquitoes are most active.
"Our department is encouraging people to be aware of it," a health department official said last year, "and if people are going to go outside, we are advising them to wear long sleeves and long pants along with insect repellent containing the ingredient DEET."
Five years ago, the City of Murfreesboro decided not to develop a mosquito-spraying program based on extension service advice, Templeton said, and the same will be true this year.
“We talked to people at the ag extension service who said spraying is not very effective,” Templeton said. “Mosquitoes are usually breeding off the (public) right-of-way and spraying on the road doesn’t get to them.
Rutherford County Agricultural Extension Agent Dewayne Trail agreed saying spraying only gets to the adults. The larvae hatch in about a week and “you’re right back where you were.”
“The insecticide is also unhealthy and dangerous for people with respiratory problems,” Templeton added. “That spraying can aggravate those conditions and you wind up creating more problems than you solve.”
Call the local health department at 898-7785, the Rutherford County Agricultural Extension Service at 898-7710, Murfreesboro Street Department at 893-4380 or city administration at 849-2629 for more information. |
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