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A cool spring delayed the start of aerial treatment until April 23, about a week later than usual. We had successful results with over 96% mortality in the treatment of 49,834 acres of flooded woodlots over 6 days.
Staff has been involved in a number of educational efforts through attendance at the MSU Extension Pollinator Health meeting, assisting at the MMCA exhibit at the State of Michigan Earth Day Event in Lansing, representing BCMC with a display at the Bangor Green Team Earth Day event, and completing mosquito life cycle presentations to nearly 700 first graders through the Bay City Public Schools STEM program. Our full seasonal staff began May 14 with larviciding crews focusing on treatment of woodlots for some spring Aedes and Culex species as well as yard inspections. A shift to catch basin treatments began in early June. Adulticiding crews began the season focusing on areas with emergence of primarily Ae. canadensis in northern Bay County. By June 8, significant numbers of Coquillettidia perturbans began emerging near the Saginaw Bay shoreline shifting adulticiding treatment to those areas. There has been some emergence of Ae. vexans after some rainfall in mid-May and late-May, however nuisance mosquito counts have been tolerable. Disease surveillance got under way in early June with mosquito pools sent to MSU and bird testing in-house. There has been no disease evidence in Bay County to report to date. Biology staff implemented the use of a new Catchmaster Ovi-Catch trap to increase disease surveillance. The trap is designed to catch female mosquitoes looking for a suitable site to lay eggs. Our first tire drive of the season was held June 2 at Mosquito Control with 1,039 tires collected funded through the DEQ Scrap Tire Clean-up Grant. We are happy to welcome our new Master Mechanic Chad Milkowski who joined our staff April 30 and is doing a great job maintaining and improving our fleet. Rebecca Brandt, Manager |
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Thanks to all who attended/supported Charlie Dinsmore’s retirement in late April. It was a fitting tribute to a dedicated professional.
Charlie reports that he has been as busy as ever (no surprise) since retirement and has put in several hours of time at the Sanford museum, painting anything that does not run away. Let’s hope that his various volunteer outlets will have enough projects to keep him sufficiently engaged. It may prove to be a significant challenge to do so! We are very pleased to have Patty Wood onboard as the incoming Operations Supervisor. She has brought a tremendous amount of optimism, fresh perspective and diligence to the position and we are all very positive about the future and grateful for her having joined our team. We have noted a healthy crop of mosquitoes this year and suspect that the abundance of various spring and summer species from the flood last year left a wealth of eggs available to hatch in 2018. We are grateful this year’s July 4th celebrations will not usher in the deluge (intentionally selected descriptor) of mosquitoes that we experienced in 2017. Carl Doud, Director |
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Spring finally arrived in late April as cold temperatures finally yielded and spring larvae were able to continue to hatch and develop. We completed our spring aerial woodlot treatment the last week of April. This year’s spring aerial program decreased targeted populations by 88% in approximately 46,500 acres of wooded habitat.
The weather that followed our spring treatment has been more representative of what would be considered a normal spring. Rain events have again produced some early floodwater nuisance such as the Coquillettidia perturbans (cattail mosquito). West Nile virus has again been detected early this season in a collection of Culex mosquitoes trapped on May 23rd. Our field and biology staff have been reacting and getting ahead of mosquito threats by treating floodwater and Culex habitat as well as intervening with routine ULV spraying. This year’s deliberate work is much appreciated when compared to last year’s flood response, which strained portions of our operations. Our field software and technology is continuing to pay dividends due to the hard work and cooperation amongst the staff and departments. The FieldSeeker GIS software has allowed for quicker response and analysis of control activities. Its incorporation into our program has resulted in a much needed audit of our control operations and products. I am thankful to have a competent and cooperative staff for its implementation. SCMAC’s annual Creative Arts Contest have concluded. This is a great opportunity for the county’s grade 3 through 5 students to demonstrate what they have learned about mosquitoes. Be sure to look at the finalists. Summer activities for our Education Department has and will include participation at multiple County Park events as well as City of Saginaw attractions and events. These range from activities at the Children’s Zoo, to outreaches at Senior Citizen events; the Saginaw County Fair and many more. We are continually looking for additional opportunities to engage the community. The Biology Department with the help of an intern, MSU, and the Midwest Centers for Excellence is assessing the presence of Jamestown Canyon virus within the County. This lesser known arbovirus has seen recent increases in human cases within the Midwest region. This joint effort is also looking to establish baseline levels for possible adulticide resistance within our Culex populations. It is imperative to monitor mosquito population’s response to the current control products and strategies we use, as we look to continue responsible and effective control. Bacterial larvicide formulations are being assessed for use in neglected pools, sewage lagoons, and catch basins. Our Source Reduction program has thus far removed more than 3,000 scrap tires from the environment. We still have 3 months of collection to go so we expect that number to more than double. This year we will attempt to eliminate historical tire piles through a new joint effort with our local health department, township code enforcement, and property owners. We will be much relieved when these substantial piles of mosquito habitat are removed from the environment. Please continue to have a safe and successful season. William Stanuszek, Director |
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We began with the treatment of flooded woodlots on April 9th this season. Below average rainfall this spring left many areas relatively dry.
Technicians are in the process of treating roadside ditches, catch basins, artificial containers and sewage lagoons. Jim Andrews from Valent spent a day training various staff on the use of Vectolex ® WDG in sewage lagoons. A new sprayer with agitation was purchased to deliver this material which Jim helped to calibrate. With the exception of the bay shore and a hatch of Coquillettidia pertubans, trap counts have been low, due to very dry conditions across the county. As in the past mosquito samples will be sent to Michigan State University for testing. The first samples returned tested negative for disease. The addition of two electric ULV’s have been well received and we have been pleasantly surprised with no complaints by the residents. We currently have nine tire drives scheduled with tire trailers being distributed among the various townships making it easier for residents to dispose of unwanted scrap tires. Kimberly Green, Director |
