Williston, ND Active Issues

First off our appologies for Wednesday, Tuesday night the winds were too high for Vector Control to fog.  The good news is that Fran is out fogging tonight.  The mosquitoes are exceptionally bad tonight, I was outside for a good portion of the night working so I know first hand how bad they are.  I was forced to wear my insulated coveralls, mosquito head net, and boots. 

Secondly, we met with the Air Force today and they will almost certainly be here next year if we can come up with approximately $1 million dollars to treat the area 4 times.  They even mentioned having to bring in two C-130's possibly to get the job done and they were unfortunately very amazed by the sheer numbers of mosquitoes that we have here and by the large breeding areas.  Both men that were here have master’s degrees in entomology, and seemed very knowledgeable.

This year sucks, there is no question about that, we aren't trying to sugar coat it, it sucks.  The river bottoms stayed flooded for three weeks straight from June 22nd to July 13, that created thousands of acres of additional mosquito breeding habitat, which created trillions of additional mosquitoes. 

We will fog every night the weather allows us to fog, if you check the web site over the next few days you will see maps of the ground fogging.  It takes a long time to create the maps but I get a lot of people who say they haven't been going by their house.  We have handheld computers mounted in the trucks that are connected to the fogger and to a GPS.  While they are driving around we are able to tell what time they went by your house, if the pump was running, and the exact speed they were going.

Every time we fog we create a vacuum, which is quickly filled by new mosquitoes from the river bottoms.  It is frustrating to say the least, we can clean all of the mosquitoes out one night and the very next day they can completely fill back in.  Even if for one of the four missions that we have the Air Force do is an adulticide mission, they cannot, by federal law, adulticide over the river bottoms, so the same principal would apply, they would kill every mosquito in and all around Williston, however if we don't larvacide within days, all of that time, effort, and money is waisted because there will be a new hatch that will replace them.  I hope that makes sense to everyone, this process is called integrated pest management, you cannot just larvacide, you cannot just adulticide, you must do both.  Integrated pest management says that 1) remove the source (habitat), which means we have to clean up any standing water that we can.  2) Larvacide, larvaciding is the most effective way to kill mosquitoes because they are confined, we know where they are at, and they are concentrated.  3) Adulticide, this is the least effective way to kill mosquitoes but is still a part of what must be done, adult mosquitoes are very mobile and are widely dispursed, which makes it very expensive to kill adults.

The aerial image was too big, so I removed it.  I will resize it and make it fit better later.

Carnell wrote:

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I'm sure you've exhausted all of your resources but this is kind of interesting :http://mattdowling.blogspot.com/2008/05/sterile-mosquitoes-near-take-off.html

I'm sure this takes time and a lot of money. (Which the Williston residents don't seem to have much of... TIME that is.)) They want the results overnight, so it seems...completely understandable though. Spending my adolescent years in Williston, the skeeter problem has been going on for a very long time now.

Don't let "The man" beat you down though. As long as your crew is out at all hours of the day and night...There isn't a whole more you can do. You sure got things going in the right direction. Keep going.

Good luck!

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Carnell wrote:

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The mosquitos are NEVER going away. As long as there is stagnant water surrounding Williston, there will ALWAYS be mosquitoes. And "Yes." some years will be worse than others. It doesn't have  anything to do with what VC is doing, but has everything to do with how Mother Nature dealt her hand this particular summer...seems as though you all were dealt a pretty rotten one. If the spraying and the extreme efforts by the VC aren't going to phase the problem...Nothing will.

G.

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jd powell wrote:

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Since the fogging began, they have had one sucessful day which was tuesday,the 8th of july.All othe days have been a complete failure. The mosquitoes are clearly winning this battle.The previous group did a much better job than this gang. Please talk to some of that bunch and learn what they were doing that you are not. So far, all I have heard from the new bunch is a lot of chatter and no real action. If you can not do the job, admit it and maybe we can have some one else who knows mosquitoes and don[t ask me where. I am very disapointed with this all talk group. Oh yes, I forgot.....there was one mosquito on my white car this am and he was not quite dead as one wing was moving. Also, I am seeing people running around with hooded sweaters. Kinda rediculous isn't it?

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I did want to also mention that the Vector Board has contracted Mr. David Benth, the previous Vector Director, to get us going, so we have definitely been talking to the previous group leader.

Keep in mind that we are all having to learn from scratch, this is a startup year, with a new board and new director, Fran Bosch.  Remember, the previous group all quit, from the director to the board, because the public was so hard on them.  Fran is learning timing this year and considering he got thrown into the worst mosquito problem in the nation in April 2008, he is doing pretty darn well if you ask me.

I just got done dipping for larva in the river bottoms tonight with Fran, you cannot even begin to imagine how bad the mosquitoes are down in the river bottoms, unless you have been there.  We dipped by Skunk Hollow, the Pump House, and by Big Timber, for those of you who are familiar with the bottoms.  It was simply the most stupid thing you can imagine.  I wore my insulated coveralls with rubber boots, leather gloves and mosquito netting over my head, and Fran wore a mosquito net coat with head cover.  Fran didn't wear gloves and at one point the mosquitoes were biting him so fiercely on the palms of his hands that when he smacked his hand against his pants he left dozens of blood spots all over.  There is no having to convince me of where our mosquito problem comes from, and if we can get it cleaned up by the Air Force it may be worth it.  We will meet with them and see what kind of plan can be hatched, and yes it will require more talking, but talking is how we learn and learn is what we will do, and mosquitoes will die from what we learn.

NaderMoore wrote:

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SKM wrote:

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LMAO at steves comment...but seriously....I think I now need a blood transfustion!!! These skeetrs mean business!! HOLA!! I can only wish good luck and God Bless to those who are venturing out to the fair this weekend. OH, and BTW...we went back to using ORTHO Malathion Plus. ( I feel sorry for the bees and dragonflies, but hope it kills a few spiders cause....well.... they just freak me out!)

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Spiders eat mosquitos.

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But now that I think about it...considering where we live, we really should change those lyrics.  I know and old lady that swallowed a mosquito, I don't know why though, she swallowed the mosquito. 

The fog that is coming out of the back of the truck is a mix of oil and Anvil 10+10.  This is a similar product to Tempo but is produced as super fine droplets that the mosquitoes must fly through to die, and yes, once they fly through it, they die.

The trucks are going through the streets, not the alleys, only as a suggestion from the vendor who sells the fogger.  He claims you get better dispersion when fogging the streets than with the alleys.

Each night they alternate, they do Avenue's one night then Streets the next.  That way they can cover the entire town in one night or morning.  So far they have been getting up at 3:00am and doing the mornings.

The little mini Japanese truck sprays Tempo, they use it to spray the fairgrounds and the parks because it lasts longer than the fog.  The crew has been working very long hours this week so if you see them please thank them for all the hard work.

As for the new, one time infusion of $150,000.00 from the city, for the first time ever in the history of Williston Vector Control we larvacided the Missouri River bottoms, including the Lewis and Clark Wildlife Management area.  We'll have to see what kind of effect it has on creating a larger buffer so they can't be so easily blown in from the river like they did last week Tuesday.  If this new money produces positive results, then the Vector Board may ask for an extra $2 from the voters in the November election.  That would be a total of $4/month.  We will only ask for the extra $2 if there is a significant improvement in the conditions (fewer mosquitos).

Another possibility is to look at expanding the Vector District to include both Williams and McKenzie Counties to create one large cooperative district.  We both share the problem, the Missouri River bottoms from the Confluence to the beginning of Lake Sakakawea.  If we could treat the entire river bottom from the confluence to the lake, we wouldn't have a mosquito issue period.  It makes sense if you think of New Town for example, they have no mosquitoes there, why, because there is no river bottom, it is all lake.  The problem is we need around $2,500,000.00 to treat that whole area.  We need ideas on how to raise that kind of money, because we will need that amount of money each year.  It is vital that we solve this problem, we are all SICK AND TIRED OF THE MOSQUITOES!  We need the money to do it, so let's get the thinking caps on and get this problem solved.

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