{"id":64388,"date":"2019-04-30T15:11:30","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T21:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/this-years-mosquito-season-could-be-a-bad-one\/"},"modified":"2019-04-30T21:11:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T21:11:30","slug":"this-years-mosquito-season-could-be-a-bad-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/this-years-mosquito-season-could-be-a-bad-one\/","title":{"rendered":"This year\u2019s mosquito season could be a bad one"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"With
With all the runoff and rains this spring, Pat Kelley, manager for the Animas Mosquito Control District, expects it will be a bad year for the biting insects.<\/span>JERRY McBRIDE\/Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It could be a very bad year for mosquitoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn wet years like this, all bets are off,\u201d said Pat Kelley, manager for the Animas Mosquito Control District. \u201cWe\u2019re just preparing best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every year, La Plata County\u2019s two mosquito control districts (the other being Florida Mosquito Control District) spray and take other preventative measures to cut down the number of blood-sucking insects over spring and summer months.<\/p>\n

But this year, officials say, poses an extraordinary problem.<\/p>\n

Significant snowpack in the high country could bring down higher than normal runoff into rivers, creating pools and areas of stagnant water along the watershed \u2013 the perfect breeding conditions for mosquitoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the river floods, it\u2019s a real big thing for us,\u201d Kelley said.<\/p>\n

Flooding also washes away treatment placed in specific areas, Kelley said, forcing crews to go back out and spray again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be very careful \u2026 because we don\u2019t want to waste taxpayer money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a stark contrast from last year, Kelley said, when extreme drought, on top of smoke from the 416 Fire, made mosquitoes a near nonexistent irritant on daily life for La Plata County residents.<\/p>\n

This year, crews with the district found mosquito larvae growing April 1, considered relatively early, Kelley said.<\/p>\n

The Animas Mosquito Control District covers an area from the Animas Valley, west to Wildcat Canyon, east near Farmington Hill and as far south as Weasel Skin bridge.<\/p>\n

Kelley said prep work for mosquitoes begins as early as March, first treating the more than 3,000 drains in the district. Then, the district\u2019s two crews of two employees focus on lagoons and ponds before going onto properties where mosquitoes thrive.<\/p>\n

Kay DeLuzio, manager Florida Mosquito Control District, said the district has three employees that cover 100 square miles from the Colorado-New Mexico line, up to Helen\u2019s Store near Lemon Reservoir. She agreed that this year could see high mosquito activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be quite a bit more this year because of wet weather,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we\u2019ll take it how it comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelley said there are 20 known species of mosquitoes found in La Plata County, seven of which can carry diseases such as West Nile virus.<\/p>\n

Claire Ninde, a spokeswoman for San Juan Basin Public Health, said there are not many cases of West Nile virus in humans in La Plata County \u2013 since 2003, there have been from 0 to 3 cases a year.<\/p>\n

Rosalind Penney, a regional epidemiologist with San Juan Basin Public Health, said the department recommends residents take several proactive measures, such as emptying standing water around homes, wearing long sleeves and pants and using repellent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really about taking that proactive step to prevent mosquito bites,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kelley said the biggest message to residents is to eliminate standing water around one\u2019s property.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m amazed \u2026 people do not go out every time it rains and get rid of standing water, and understand how many mosquitoes in just a little bottle cap of water can produce,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing the best we can to control all that, but we need folks to help us out.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mosquito control districts prepare for what could be bad year for bugs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[668],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-public-health"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64388"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}