Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Ed Yeates ReportingUnseasonal temperatures last week combined with lots of water have brought out one of our worst summer villains early and in big numbers. The mosquito that has the potential of carrying West Nile is coming on strong.
If you see people wearing bright green shirts, riding bikes and tossing packets into storm drains, don't call Homeland Security. Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement is out in force, seeking out any and all hiding places for mosquitoes to breed.
By law, storm drains now must contain sumps, a catch basin for debris that could clog up the system. But those sumps, when wet, are perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes. So these abatement cycle crews will be weaving in and out of your neighborhood, throwing the packets into the drains.
Garrett Sessions, SLC Mosquito Abatement Crew: "It's a growth hormone inhibitor. And when we throw it into the storm drain, it looks like plastic, but it's really a water soluble packet that dissolves an drains."
The hormone blocks mosquito larvae from developing, while remaining harmless to everything else.
Mosquito Abatement Director Sam Dickson says two kinds of mosquitoes that can potentially can carry West Nile are hatching in a big way.
Dr. Sam Dickson, Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District: "We started finding Culex Tarsalis - the West Nile virus vector - we started finding larvae in the water as early as the last week in April."
The weather warmed dramatically, unseasonably early, and adult Culex Tarsali mosquitoes have tripled and quadrupled in numbers in the past week.
Dr. Dickson: "Pretty much all the water surrounding the Great Salt Lake and the wetlands area is definitely full of water and are producing mosquitoes now, a very large habitat."
Sam Dickson is making no predictions for West Nile this year, but he believes we have not seen the peak yet. In Utah, there were 52 human cases of West Nile hospitalized last summer.
From now until the end of summer, when outdoors, use repellant from dusk to dawn, check screens on windows and doors and pour out standing water in any container in your yard.
