Dealing with Skeeters
Dealing with Skeeters. I'm Greg Martin with Colorado Ag Today.
Odd that in a year where we talk a lot about drought conditions and the lack of snow pack that Colorado has also been getting a great deal of rain in many part where reservoirs are filled to overflowing. One problem that is causing is an abundance of mosquitoes.
WEISSMANN: Here in Colorado we've had an explosion of populations because of all the rain that we've had this last month. It's a massive population explosion of mosquitoes that we are seeing this week.
Michael "Doc" Weissmann, Chief Entomologist with Colorado Mosquito Control, a private company that contracts with various communities in the state.
WEISSMANN: Different contracts have us do different things. Some of our contracts have us do just surveillance where we trap for adults and diagnose what species are there. Some of those get tested for West Nile. Others have a full control program where we go after the larvae in the water. If the trap counts are high we spray for adults as well.
The biggest issue besides the annoyance factor is the potential for the West Nile virus and Weissmann says if you haven't already vaccinated your horses, better get on it. And as for humans...
WEISSMANN: Of course they recommend you wear mosquito repellant when you are out and about because there is no vaccine for humans for West Nile so the best protection is personal protection. In the case of horses they do have a vaccine so any horse owner that doesn't have their horses vaccinated is taking a gamble.
He says individuals should do everything they can on their property to drain any standing water which is where mosquitoes breed.
And that's Colorado Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.
