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Mosquito Management

  1. Public Works
Public Works

Public Works Building

4277 Wire Rd, Suite 100

CODY W KIEFER

CODY W KIEFER

landscape & sustain div mgr

The City of Auburn engages in mosquito management to combat diseases transmitted by mosquitoes. The three approaches we use for mosquito management are:

  1. Educating citizens on how they can manage mosquitoes around their homes and neighborhoods.
  2. Deploying localized pesticides around homes (upon request) and into detention ponds.
  3. If recommended by local health officials, using a truck mounted sprayer/fogger.

Education

We advocate personal responsibility as the initial approach to mitigating mosquito issues. Citizens are advised to follow Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommendations such as using repellent to ward off mosquitoes, wearing protective clothing and focusing on source reduction by removing standing water from around homes as the most effective way to ward off mosquitoes.

Adulticiding and Larviciding around Homes and Detention Ponds

Our secondary approach to mitigating mosquito issues includes a combination of adulticiding (spraying to eradicate mature mosquitoes), and larviciding (eradication of mosquitoes during the larvae/pupae stage) around homes and detention ponds to reduce the mosquito population.

Upon request by residents, we will set up a time to visit properties and provide mosquito abatement services. While there, staff will also evaluate the area and recommend ways for residents to reduce the mosquito population such as removing items (i.e., old tires, buckets) that tend to hold standing water where mosquito larvae may exist. Residents may request mosquito abatement services up to two times a year between May 1 and Sept. 30. To request mosquito abatement services around your home, please submit a request through Auburn FixIt. Residents may also contact local pest control companies for service around their homes.

Based on a rotating schedule, staff will deposit larvicide briquettes into City detention ponds to eradicate mosquito larvae/pupae.

Adulticiding and Larviciding (including use of a Truck-Mounted Sprayer/Fogger)

When recommended by public health officials for the eradication of mosquitoes that may carry diseases, the City will use truck-mounted sprayers for mosquito abatement. In the past, we have received complaints from residents who have asked us not to use the sprayer because of respiratory issues and/or organic gardening. When we receive such complaints, we work to avoid spraying those specific locations.

The active ingredient in the pesticide we use in our backpack sprayer and truck-mounted sprayer/fogger is sumithrin, which is widely used across the U.S. to control mosquitoes. The effect of sumithrin is scheduled to last up to four weeks. Spinosad is the active ingredient in the pesticide used for larviciding, which is also scheduled to last four weeks.

It is important to keep in mind that the primary carrier of the Zika Virus is the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is a day-biting mosquito. Therefore, it is a bit more difficult to control when compared to other mosquito populations in the area that are primarily evening/night biters.