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Effective mosquito control requires advance planning and preparation at the county, city, town or district level. For your consideration, general guidelines for program development are offered below
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Funding, management and personnel requirements
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Funding:
For the most part, control programs are funded locally, through city or county budgets. Some state aid may be available; amounts will vary on the size of the program and area served. |
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Management: In North Crolina, mosquito control programs are operated through either local County Health Departments or Public Works Programs |
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Personnel Requirements: Personnel needs will depend on the level of service your local area requires.
If your program will include application of pesticides, personnel will need to be trained and licensed through the state. There are no special licensing requirments for programs that will focus solely on education and container clean-up. |
Know Your Target
Knowledge of North Carolina Mosquitoes, and specifically the mosquitoes in your county will enable you to optimize your program while keeping expenditures to a minimum. To be effective, you must
know which of the 61 North Carolina species are a problem in your area.
Knowledge of the biology of these species will enable you to tailor your program for optimum control. Biological considerations for each species include:
- Flight times
- Travel distance
- Habitat preference
- Seasonal Distribution
Know Your Area
To optimize your resources it is necessary to have comprehensive and detailed knowledge of the immediate and surrounding area. This requires locating and prioritzing the treatment areas (ex. through
mapping). Therefore, your plan should include the following:
- Defining the treatment areas
- Prioritizing the potential treatment areas
- Locating productive mosquito habitat within the protected area
- Timing the work (build maps over time)
- Choosing the proper equiment and chemicals
- Training personnel
- Planning and coordinating with other mosquito programs
Define Operational Strategies
At the outset, it is necessary to develop a strategy in order to direct control efforts towards each mosquito population affecting the citizens of your county.
Central to this goal are the following issues:
- Survey: Develop and maintain a map system that includes the following information:
- The area under your protection
- Access routes into the area
- Mosquito production zones
- Monitoring Procedures:
- Initiate routine monitoring procedures that include larval and adult counts, identified to species
- Define thresholds, which are the acceptable landing counts in your area
- Develop procedures to receive and respond to mosquito complaints
- Develop and plan control strategies for each type of production zone
- Analyze each zone individually to determine which control strategy will provide the most sound and effective control (prevention, larvicide, or adulticide controls)
- Plan ground treatment routes that are based on providing service to the citizens of the community while incorporating mosquito hotspots.
Evaluate and Refine your Plan, Taking Into Consideration:
- Available equipment
- Availablity of experienced operators
- Surveillance history of the area
- Surrounding habitat and environmental limitations/hazards
Record Keeping and Program Review
- Future prioritizing will be greatly facilitated by accurate and complete surveillance histories and pesticide application records.
The Mosquito Control Operator (MCO) should also know how to fill out a Mosquito Control Investigation Form. See Form Page for templates and guidelines.
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