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Dept. of Public Health Warns
Mosquitoes Are Coming and Biting
As the mosquito season arrives, the Saint Louis County Department of Public Health would like to remind residents to protect themselves. Warmer temperatures, stagnant pools of water, and flood debris all combine to form ideal conditions for mosquito breeding. Besides being a nuisance, some species of mosquitoes can transmit diseases, such as West Nile Virus.
The Saint Louis County Department of Public Health’s Vector Control Services Program works to reduce the number of mosquitoes in the county, focusing primarily on those species that can transmit disease.
Vector Control conducts routine surveillance throughout the county to identify locations with high numbers of adult mosquitoes as well as testing adult mosquitoes for the presence of West Nile Virus. Using data collected throughout the county, Vector Control treats standing water on public property during the day and treats for adult mosquitoes at night to reduce the mosquito populations in those neighborhoods.
Residents are also urged to help reduce mosquito populations by eliminating the standing water that mosquitoes need to reproduce. Mosquitoes can only develop in water. Eliminating or treating standing water is the best way to reduce mosquito populations and protect yourself from bites. Residents are asked to check their property for standing water and do the following:
- Properly discard or recycle old tires, tin cans, jars, buckets, flower pots, drums, trash, and any other containers, or store them so they will not collect water.
- Maintain, treat, or drain pools and be sure pool covers do not hold water when in use and are stored in a manner in which they do not collect water while not in use.
- Cover or store boats, canoes, and wheelbarrows upside down when not in use.
- Be sure to remove drain plugs so that water does not collect in your boat.
- Empty small plastic wading pools, children’s play items, flower pot saucers, and bird baths every few days.
- Keep gutters clean and repair any tears in door and window screens.
- Standing water that cannot be drained should be treated with a mosquito larvicide containing the active ingredient B.t.i. (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) according to the product’s label to prevent mosquitoes from developing.
- Residents are asked to report any standing water located on public areas to Vector Control at 314-615-0680.
- Remove unwanted weeds and brush, and treat plants and shrubs with an EPA approved mosquito barrier spray to eliminate resting areas for adult mosquitoes.
To help prevent mosquito bites, residents should avoid being outdoors at dusk and dawn, as those are the times when mosquitoes are most active. If you must be outdoors where mosquitoes are present, wear light colored, loose fitting long sleeve shirts and long pants. Residents are also encouraged to use insect repellents containing N, N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) or other active ingredients approved for repelling biting insects.
For questions regarding mosquitoes or Vector Control services, contact St. Louis County Vector Control at 314-615-0680. For more information regarding vector-borne diseases such as West Nile Virus, and others, you may visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website at https://www.cdc.gov.
