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The City of Hazelwood is still committed to controlling mosquitoes throughout the area.  Mosquitoes often become a nuisance to those who enjoy playing sports, doing leisure activities and barbequing food in the great outdoors.  They can also pose a potential health threat by transmitting such mosquito-born diseases such as the west nile virus, encephalitis, dengue, malaria and dog heartworm.

However, like most municipalities, Hazelwood has experienced a decrease in sales tax receipts for 2009.  As a result, City officials have been forced to make reductions in their mosquito control program for the summer.  But this year’s plan calls for attacking the problem early with the use of “dunks,” which are products that kill mosquito larvae, in places where there’s standing water.

Most mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water where the larvae hatch in a day or two.  All mosquitoes need water in which to pass through their early life stages.  By using “dunks,” this should kill off the mosquito larvae before they become adults thus helping to reduce the mosquito population.

“Eliminating their breeding sites and stopping mosquitoes before they become larvae is a much more effective and economical way of controlling them.  Our plan is to start locating and treating places of standing water in May.  We will continue doing this throughout the Spring, Summer and Fall,” said David Stewart, Hazelwood’s director of public works and city engineer.

In July, Stewart says the city will be fogging at least two nights a week, which will cover most of the Hazelwood area once a week.  “Of course, if we have any problem areas, we’ll be able to spot spray them several times and continue our efforts to locate and treat any standing water problems,”  he said.

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