Control Measures

A variety of control measures are available to reduce mosquito populations including education, source reduction, larvaciding, and adulticiding. Surveillance techniques are in place to determine the optimum time to implement these control measures.

Source Reduction

If requested, mosquito control personnel are available to perform site evaluations. Many of these requests are handled by simply eliminating the source of the problem, which often are a result of the Asian Tiger Mosquito. The only way to control this mosquito is to eliminate its breeding source. Education is a key component of this.

Larvaciding

Larvaciding is the use of biological agents to kill mosquito larvae. Mosquito breeding sites are found through active larval mosquito surveillance. These sites are mapped and monitored for breeding mosquitoes.

Adulticiding

Adulticiding is the use of Ultra Low Volume (ULV) spraying to kill adult mosquitoes. This is the least effective control measure for reducing the mosquito population within an area. One way staff determine that an area has a particularly high number of adult mosquitoes is to conduct physical landing counts. Landing counts are simply the number of mosquitoes that land on a person within a specified amount of time. When it is determined that this number is significant enough to warrant adulticiding, staff place CDC light traps in an area to catch adult mosquitoes. The collected mosquitoes are identified by sex and species. This data, along with physical landing counts, determine the need for spraying.