TIM PRATT
STARKVILLE — In the city of Starkville, Joseph Goddard is a mosquito’s worst enemy.
The 22-year-old Mississippi State graduate has been on a mission to control the city’s mosquito population for each of the past three summers. He places mosquito larvicide tablets in standing water to kill the insects before they hatch; he sprays chemicals to kill mosquitoes in areas where they’ve become a problem, including the city’s streets and neighborhoods; and he has eight New Jersey mosquito traps set up throughout town.
A New Jersey trap, Goddard, who works part-time for the city, explained Wednesday while checking one of the devices, contains a light, which is meant to attract mosquitoes. Below the light is a fan, which sucks mosquitoes into the trap. He counts the mosquitoes caught in each trap twice a week to monitor the population in different parts of town.
If a trap contains five to 10 mosquitoes, the area probably isn’t too heavily infested, he said. If a trap contains 50 or more, however, he might decide to spray the area with an adulticide, which kills adult insects, he said.
When the number of mosquitoes increases, like they do a week to 10 days after a heavy rain, Goddard tries to locate the source of the insects, larvicides the standing water in that area and sprays to reduce the adult population. He also takes other steps to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds, like picking up tires and trash where water might accumulate.
Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.
Recent comments