By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
LITTLE VALLEY — Cattaraugus County Legislator Kelly Andreano, R-Olean, couldn’t go to the store or walk down the street without someone complaining about mosquitoes.
On Wednesday, a resolution updating the cost of aerial spraying for mosquitoes was approved by members of the County Legislature’s Human Services and Finance committees.
“I am so happy we are spraying for mosquitoes,” said Andreano, chairman of the Human Services Committee. “We’re dying from mosquitoes” in Olean.
The sole provider of the aerial spraying, Duflo Spray Chemical Inc., will have planes on the ground in the county on Friday and be ready to fly this weekend.
“The company would like to spray this weekend,” said County Administrator Jack Searles.
Since the full county legislature does not meet until next Wednesday, the county is declaring an emergency situation to be able to spray this weekend, he explained. The legislature will pass the resolution approved by committees at that time.
Searles said if there is a change in the weather that delays flying, “they will push it out until Monday.”
The resolution was necessary due to higher costs of the chemicals Duflo can spray for either larva or adult mosquitoes.
Contacted by the Olean Star, Public Health Director Dr. Kevin D. Watkins said, “Larvicide will be used for this initial application (weather dependent). Itr looks like Monday, June 10th there will be a window for the initial application.”
Watkins said, “Breeding pools were elevated early on in May. Some larvicide pools were in the hundreds as well as some adult pools collected. We are noticing a downward trend in the pool numbers this past week, but with the increase in rain and heat forecast, the department has decided to be proactive and apply the larvicide.”
A warm, wet spring was a big factor in generating the large numbers of larvae. The chemicals halt the development of larva and they never become adult mosquitoes.
The larvicide will be sprayed over wetland areas in cities of Olean and Salamanca and the towns of Allegany, Olean, Portville, Hinsdale, Carrollton and Great Valley, Watkins said.
Participating municipalities including Olean had previously this year contracted with the county to help pay for mosquito surveillance and control efforts. The county will cover the higher costs, estimated at less than $5,000.
“We’re celebrating,” Andreano said of Olean and area legislators. “This is the earliest in my five years as a legislator I’ve been able to get them to spray for mosquitoes.”
She told the Olean Star, “My phone has been ringing off the hook. The mosquitoes are really bad down by the river.”
The complaints come from families getting bit out in their yards, construction workers, landscapers and baseball players in Carrollton and Limestone, Andreano said in an interview.
The health department hires two college students each summer for mosquito surveillance. Besides dipping in breeding pools to count numbers of larvae that will emerge as mosquitoes, they set and check mosquito traps in several locations.
The mosquitoes are attracted by carbon dioxide from dry ice, which mimics the breath from a human or other mammal. The interns separate the dead mosquitoes by species. Some species are known to carry diseases like California equine encephalitis or West Nile virus, both of which can be deadly to humans and animals like horses.
The contract with Duflo will require $5,497 from the county’s contingency fund to cover higher costs than budgeted. In addition, $3,092 in state funds and $12,768 in federal funding are expected as revenue to the county
Larvicide costs to spray 3,463 acres of wetlands where mosquitoes breed are $69,857. The cost of spraying 10,984 acres with adulticide ranges from $53,492 to $56.018.
