of the Florida Mosquito Control Association C/

·- Volume 10, Number 3

Liquid. You know it works.

Granules. You know it works.

Pellets. You know it works.

Briquets. You know the drill.

zoEcoM Always read and follow label direcUons. Wellmark lntemationat, Bensenville, IL. Altosid and Zoi!con are trademarks of Wellmark International. @1999 Wellmark International.

PO Box 60005

Fort Myers, FL 33906

Editor-in-Chief Dennis Moore, Fort Myers, FL voice: 941-694-2174 fax: 941-694-6959 e-mail: moore@lcmcd.org

Associate Editors Charlie Morris, Sarasota, FL Stan Cope, Norfolk, VA

15191 Homestead Rd

Lehigh, FL 33971

John Gamble, New Smyrna Beach, FL

Graphics Alan Curtis, Vero Beach, FL James Newman, Vern Beach, FL

Column Editors Cbemline - Doug Wassmer, Odessa, FL Chip-Chat- Tom Floore, Panama City, FL Crankcase Eddie - Ed Meehan, Mound, MN

Regional Editors Massachusetts - Timothy D. Deschamps, Norwood Michigan -Thomas R. Wilmot, Sanford New Jersey - William C. Reinert, Northfield Texas - Dan Sprenger, Corpus Christi Utah - Glenn Collett, SaJt Lake City

Editorial Review Board Richard Berry, Columbus, OH David Dame, Gainesville, FL Gerry Hutney, Tampa, FL L. Philip Lounibos, Vero Beach, FL Robert Lowrie, Covington, LA Joseph Ruff, Panama City, FL John J. Smith, Norwood, MA James Webb, Santa Ana, CA

Florida Mosquito Control Association FMCA President: Joseph Ruff, Panama City, FL e-mail: ruffj@doacs.state.fl.us

Shelly Redovan. FMCA Executive Director PO Box 60837 Fort Myers, FL 33906-0837 voice: 941-694-2174; fax: 941-433-5684 e-mail: redova@mail.dms.state.fl.us

Amer ican Mosquito Control Associa tion AMCA President: Bill Zawicki, Freehold. NJ e-mail: bzawicki @aol.com

Marlene Comeaux, AMCA Business Manager 2200 E. Prien Lake Rd. Lake Charles, LA 70601 voice: 318-474-2723; fax: 318-478-9434 e-mail: amcaintl @deltech.net

www.floridamosqiilio.org www.mosquito.org

of the Florida Mosquito Control Association , Volume 10, Number 3 Fall 1999

On the Books: As We Head into the 21st Century: A Brief Retro-spective ... .... ..... ... .... ........ ........... ..... ......................... ............. .... .. 4 by~~ ie ;t;;tl#

Feature: The Mosquito Habitats of New Jersey .................................. a byU'~p. ~

Leading Edge : Education , An Essential Mosquito Control Tool ........ ... ............. .......... .... ..................... .................... : .. ............... 12 by ~ P. ?1t«4a

Vector Bearings: Tick-Tock-Doe: Tick Management Legislation for New Jersey ................ ..... .. ....................... ...................................... 18 by~S-~ .

Natures Way: The Use of Fish in Mosquito Control Programs in the Northeast U.S .......... .... ........ .......... .... ........... .. ..... . ....... ..... 20 by ;;;~ 'J:::e~tt 4l«t ~ s~-~Oo/Je4

Under Surveillance: West Nile Virus in New York City - The Initial Response .. .... ......... ... .. .... ..... ........ ....... .. .. ........ .... ......... ....... . 29 by'D~1/.~

Letter to the Editor & Technical Adviser Announcement .......... 33

~ ~t4U: An official publication of the American Mosquito Control Association, published quarterly by the Florida Mosquito Control Association. 1bis magazine is intended to keep all interested parties informed on matters as they relate to mosquito control. All rights reserved. Reproduction, in whole or part, for educational purposes is permitted, without pennission, with proper citation. The FMCA and the AMCA have not tested any of the products advertised or referred to in this publication, nor have they verified any of the statements made in any of the advertisements or articles. The FMCA and the AMCA do not warrant, expressly or implied, the fitness of any product advertised or the suitability of any advice or statements contained herein. Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily the opinions or policies of the FMCA or the AMCA.

Subscriptions: ~ &at.. is sent free of charge to anyone within the continental United States. Subscriptions are available for the cost of first class postage to any foreign address at the following rates: Europe, UK and Australia US$20; Canada, US$6; South America US$10. Make checks and purchase orders payable to the Florida Mosquito Control Association and send to FMCA, PO Box 60837, Fort Myers, FL 33906-0837.

Correspondence: Address all correspondence regarding 'IUf«? ~t4U to the Editor-in-Chief, Dennis Moore, PO Box 60005, Fort Myers, FL, 33906. Readers are invited to submit articles related to mosquito and biting fly biology and control, or letters to the Editors, to the Editor-in-Chief. Tbere is no charge if your article or lener is printed. Photographers and artists are invited to submit color transparencies, high quality original artwork or artWoric in electronic format for possible use in the magazine or on the cover; $100 will be paid for each cover photo. Businesses are invited to place advertisements through the Editor-in-Chief.

About the Cover : Bergen County Mosquito Extennination Commission larviciding catch basins in the 1920' s. Photograph from the Rutgers University Archives provided by Henry Rupp.

-AS,\.JE. HEAD INTO THE-2tsi CENTURY: --·

Mosquitoes have always played a significant role in the history of mankind; one researcher has even claimed that mosquito-borne dis­ease has been responsible for half the world's deaths. Others have questioned the role of mosquitoes in the downfall of classical Grecian civilization. Hippocrates, the "Father of Medicine", was aware of malaria and its symptoms.

Malaria and yellow fever have al­ways been participants in military affairs wherever men, mosquitoes and stagnant water coincided on the battlefield. Their impacts began to take shape in the 14th century and grew more severe as explorers and military personnel traveled to tropi­cal areas where disease was en­demic and mosquitoes plentiful. Mosquitoes played a significant role in earning sub-Saharan Africa the title of "The White Man's Grave." In World War I, malaria plagued Allied Forces in the eastern Mediterra­nean, and in World War II American servicemen ip the Pacific theater suffered more casualties from ma­laria than from the efforts of the Im­perial Japanese Army. Veterans of the Vietnam conflict can also bear witness to the effects of mosquito­borne disease.

The history of the United States itself has been shaped by mosquito­borne disease. In the Americas, the 1st recorded case of yellow fever, a disease that came to the New World with the slave trade, was 1648. There were 135 major yellow fever epidemics in American port cities between 1668 and 1893, and a major outbreak in Philadelphia in 1793 may well have doomed that

4 Fall 1999

. A BRiEF Ii£TROSPE~fiVE ·. .

city's future as the capitol of the United States. Specific incidents of historic importance include the dev­astation of an army sent by Bonaparte in 1802 to conquer Haiti. It is reported that 29,000 out of 33,000 died of yellow fever. That loss led to the sale of the Louisiana Ter­ritories to the United States in 1803. The loss of 22,000 lives in the French effort to build the Panama Canal was one of the important elements that led to the abandoning of the effort in 1889 and ultimately to the successful con­struction of the Canal by the United States, an effort made possible by mosquito control efforts.

Early hand-ditching crew

In New Jersey, the historical role of mosquitoes has not been quite as significant, nor as traumatic, although mosquito-borne disease has a well-established pedigree in the state. Historians are not sure whether it was mosquitoes or the British that made the Swedish settlement of Fort Elfsburg on the Delaware Bay untenable although one historian places the blame squarely on the mosquitoes. More certain is the role of New Jersey mosquitoes in American humor. The adventures of visitors to shore

resorts from the New York area were not only reflected in the paint­ings of Winslow Homer but also in the jokes that made the mosquito the state bird: 0. Henry has a story in which a character refers to "those snipe they call mosquitoes in New Jersey." Since New York was home base to many entertainers in the 19th century, New Jersey's reputa­tion as the mosquito state spread throughout the land. However, there were serious folks looking at mos­quitoes in New Jersey.

Significant progress had been made in the latter part of the 19th century in studying mosquitoes and disease: Laveran and Ross in ma­laria, Manson in filariasis, Finlay and Reed in yellow fever. Efforts to con­trol the cause of so much misery and economic trouble were under way, so it is no wonder that at the closing of the 19th century, New Jer­sey was looking to study the impact of mosquitoes on the state. Thus, the New Jersey Agricultural Experi­ment Station (NJAES) provided Dr. John B. Smith a small sum of money to investigate the problem. As the 20th century started, Dr. Smith sent out a survey to local health officers to determine the nature and scope of mosquito problems, principally as they related to malaria. His work in 1901 prompted the legislature to au­thorize the expenditure of $10,000 "to investigate and report upon the mosquitoes occurring within the state, their habits, life history, breed­ing place, relation to malarial, and other diseases, the injury caused by them to the agricultural, sanitary, and other interests of the state, their natural enemies, and the best meth-

ods of lessening, controlling or oth­erwise diminishing the numbers, injury or detrimental effect upon the agricultural, sanitary, and other in­terests of the state." Although fund­ing for that year was never imple­mented, Dr. Smith in 1904 pre­sented a monumental report to the senate: The Mosquitoes Occurring

Early hand-ditching crew

within the State, Their Habits, Life History, etc. -the first major study of its kind on mosquitoes.

While Dr. Smith was busy study­ing mosquitoes and providing sug­gestions for their control, the citi­zens of South Orange, New Jersey, were starting the century by initiat­ing a local campaign against mos­quitoes. This municipal program continued until the work was taken over by the Essex County Mosquito Extermination Commission under Chapter 104, Laws of 1912, the statutes governing county mosquito control efforts in New Jersey. lri 1902 mosquito control efforts were started in Elizabeth, and Newark followed suit in 1903. In 1905, the legislature provided $6,000 for state aid to municipalities for drainage work for mosquito control under the direction of the NJAES. Only Eliza­beth, with a grant of $1,000 took advantage of these funds. The NJAES became involved with the funding of the installation of exten­sive drainage for mosquito control

beginning in 1906 with laws that established the obligations of the . NJAES regarding mosquito surveys. Water management was a double­edged weapon in those days, for in addition to controlling mosquitoes, many reports speak of reclaiming land through drainage and making it a generator of tax revenues.

Although mosquito control agen­cies exist in 20 of New Jersey's 21 counties, county involvement with mosquito control has not been as uniform as that figure would seem to indicate. In fact, only 2 of 21 coun­ties have been actively involved in mosquito control continuously since the passage of the 1912 laws. With relatively few changes, these laws written by John B. Smith, a lawyer as well as an entomologist, have served the mosquito control com­munity well. Essentially, it is the duty of the mosquito extermination com­mission ''To perform all acts which in its opinion may be necessary for the elimination of mosquito breed­ing areas, or which will tend to ex­terminate mosquitoes within the county." Dr. Smith died before he could see the product of his labors, but this straightforward declaration of intent established him as the founding father of mosquito control in New Jersey; and, to the extent these laws served as a model for other states, he can justifiably be considered one of the framers of mosquito control in this country. So, mosquito control in New Jersey started at the municipal level but since the passage of the mos­quito laws the counties have done the bulk of mosquito con­trol work.

In the 1914 Proceedings of the New Jersey Mosquito Ex­termination Association (NJMEA) all counties were reported as having mosquito extermination commissions in 1912; however, a review of the reports shows that only Essex and Union counties had actually started control operations. Six more started up in 1913 and 3

more in 1914. Mosquito control was not an easy sell in those early years. One of the things that weighed against the commissions was that they were established as autono­mous bodies-something elected politicians viewed with concern be­cause of their independence of the political process-whose members were appointed by judges and whose plans and estimates were approved by the Director of the NJAES. Commissions and later control agencies came into and went out of existence, and it was not until 1977 that the current figure of 20 of 21 counties was achieved as a constant. Although it was listed as having a commission in the 1914 Proceedings, Hunterdon County has from the beginning remained without a mosquito control agency.

Commissions have been estab­lished, disestablished and re-estab­lished for various reasons, but the most significant changes occurred after 1977 when Union County abol­ished all autonomous boards and commissions, a reflection of the desire to centralize control of county government. The last year in which all 20 mosquito extermination com­missions did control work was 1970. Currently, 8 of 20 agencies remain as commissions.

Larviciding in Passaic County, NJ

A 3rd participant in New Jersey's mosquito control picture was cre­ated in 1956: the New Jersey State Mosquito Control Commission (SMCC). The SMCC was created ''to carry on a continuous study of

Fall 1999 5

mosquito control and extermination in the State, to recommend to the Governor and the Legislature, from time to time, changes in legislation which in its judgment may be nec­essary or desirable to be enacted in order to enforce and carry out mosquito extermination and control work throughout the State, to rec­ommend to the Legislature the amount of money which in its judg­ment it shall deem necessary and desirable to be appropriated each year by the State for mosquito con­trol purposes and to allocate funds appropriated for State aid to coun­ties in the performance of such work among the various counties through the New Jersey State Agricultural .Experiment Station, to act in an ad­visory capacity in all matters pertain­ing to mosquito extermination and control and to cooperate with the agencies of other States and the Federal Government in the elimina­tion of mosquito breeding areas un­der their control." The SMCC was housed at the NJAES until 1978 when it was moved to Trenton un­der the Department of Environmen­tal Protection (DEP). Initially, the pri­mary role of the SMCC was to serve as a funding agency for projects and equipment that were beyond a county's funding resources; how­ever, the SMCC soon assumed other duties. It began the adminis­tration of the State Airspray Pro­gram in 1960. The SMCC supports research activities and mosquito and vector surveillance programs. The DEP established an Office of Mosquito Control Coordination to service and administer the SMCC and to aid in processing permits re­quired for water management projects and represent the state in mosquito control issues and prob-lems. ·

Recognizing the need for shar­ing of information and cooperative endeavor, New Jersey's first mos­quito control association was formed in 1903: the Conference Committee on Mosquito Extermina­tion. Representatives from 14 mu-

6 Fall 1999

nicipalities in north Jersey met .on July 17, 1903, at the Newark Board of Health. In 1910 the name was changed to the North Jersey Mos­quito Extermination League. With the passage of the mosquito laws and the establishing of county mos­quito extermination commissions, it was natural that the New Jersey Mosquito Extermination Association was established to share informa­tion on mosquito control activities in New Jersey and throughout the United States ("Extermination" was changed to "Control" in 1975 when the association was reorganized and incorporated.). Founded in late 1913 and formally organized in 1914, the NJMCA has published Proceedings of these meetings un­interruptedly since 1914.

As more counties became in­volved in operational mosquito con­trol, it was clear to Dr. Thomas J. Headlee, Dr. Smith's successor, that more frequent meetings were essential. The monthly meetings of the Associated Executives of Mos­quito Control Work in New Jersey answered this need and provided the coordination of efforts previously provided by the NJAES. The Asso­ciated Executives have been meet­ing since 1921 to ponder the prob­lems of mosquito control-not all of them related to mosquitoes-but still the nuts and bolts of doing mosquito control in a modern, more environ­mentally oriented world.

In 1935, when the need for an organization of broader scope was recognized, the Eastern States As­sociation of Mosquito Control Work­ers was formed in New Jersey. This regional association was reorga­nized as the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) in 1944 to reflect the widespread mosquito control activities and the extensive research projects taking place throughout the nation. The AMCA now claims worldwide membership, and its publications reflect the ac­tivities of researchers and control workers.

Mosquito control has come a long way since the beginning of the century when insecticides were few, labor inexpensive and budgets small. New methods have been de­veloped and old methods have been improved. Where extermination was once the goal and draining swamps and wetlands was seen a positive step that made land available for useful and taxable purposes, now mosquito workers understand that control has to be environmentally more sound as well as economically effective. Ironically, some claim that mosquito control has been so effec­tive that nobody knows it exists any more; and, statistically, at least here in New Jersey, mosquito-borne dis­ease- with the exception of an east­ern equine encephalitis outbreak that took 22 lives in 1959 - has been insignificant in terms of lost lives; adverse economic effects have usually been more severe than the physical ones. Only when things get bad or people get sick or die, do people remember that there are workers and researchers respond­ing to their concerns.

As we move into the 21 st century, mosquito workers from around the world still meet regularly to share information . The mosquito has proved a resilient foe and, while we have controlled many, they still man­age, through their consummate abil­ity to adapt themselves to different and hostile environments, to cause suffering , death and discomfort throughout the world. What will mos­quito control workers and research­ers be reporting at the end of the new millennium?

r . ~

<_ Henry Rupp is semi­:retired and is an active mem­ber .of NJMCA currently serY:­ing as the copy editor for the AMCA program and abstract -books. ·

h.rupp@worldne._tatt.net ~ ~

~-L"l1~ . ' . ;I

~Jl,1~f(1lit(1 1lJ~Jtt~ ·ts

~l~l.t/ _]~l,S~lj

Although New Jersey is only 150 mi. long and less than 75 mi. wide, the state provides larval habitat for 62 different mosquito species. Few states, regard­less of size, support greater numbers of mosquitoes. Much of the bio-diversity, in terms of mosquito breed­ing habitats, can be attributed to events that took place during the last ice age. The great glacier that covered much of North America stopped on a line that roughly separated New Jersey into halves. The southern half is flat and sandy, the northern half is rocky and hilly. The drastic differences that New Jersey exhibits inter­rain are the result of glacial sculpture. As the ice flow melted down over southern New Jersey, the finest particulates were deposited on what is now known as the coastal plain of the state. The area is an expansive flat, sandy zone that is only 0-20 m above sea level. The coastal plain was never exposed to glacial gouging and is entirely devoid of natural lakes.

The New Jersey Pine Barrens are the most striking ecological component of the ' coastal plain, with extensive stands of Pitch Pine and Scrub Oak growing in grayish-white sand. Most of the streams that meander through the pine barrens are rich in tannins and support ex-tensive areas of sphagnum bog habitat. Dense stands of Atlantic White Cedar grow along many of the streams and reach greatest size in areas where freshwater estuaries drain onto coastal ... salt marsh habitat. The streams that flow through the pine barrens are highly acidic and have the color of brewed tea. Locals call this wa­ter "cedar water'', a media that is revered in the culture of tropical fish. Further north, the vegetation changes from oak-pine to mixed hardwood forest and the flat sandy landscape becomes rolling foothill ter­rain. Someyvhat larger particles settled from glacial melt in this transition zone leaving soils containing small to moderate sized rocks and stones. Many of the lakes in this region are man-made but a few have been cut by glacial action. Much of the foothill region has a shale base but in some areas the subsoil is composed of a yellow clay. The streams that flow through the foot­hills are relatively clear but turn muddy brown after heavy rains. The bog habitats associated with south-

8 Fall 1999

ern New Jersey become swamps this far north with a thick mud substrate from years of eutrophication.

As you progress further northward in the state, the terminal moraine of the glacier gouged numerous deep lakes and created small mountain ranges that extend up to 600 m above sea level. Soils rich in limestone leave deep sink holes in some areas and roadways must be blasted through immense stands of pure granite. Rocks become boulders in the northern region, the larg­est melt depositions along the glacier's retreating path. The swamps in the north have a characteristically soft bottom made of a dark black muck. The streams in the

''-. northern portion of the state are freestone streams . ""' that rush down from portions of the higher ter-. · rain. New Jersey's mosquito habitats are

increased substantially by the fact that nearly 75% of its perimeter is coastal in nature. On the east coast, a series

of barrier beaches separate the main-land from the Atlantic Ocean and pro­vide salt marsh habitat in areas where salt water bays meet fresh water estuaries.

The states of Delaware and Pennsyl­vania function like barrier beaches in the southern portion of New Jersey's west­ern perimeter and create vast expanses

of salt marsh wetlands along Delaware Bay. Much of these marshes have been

purposely dyked for the commercial produc­tion of salt hay and function as a nursery for a

variety of salt marsh mosquito species. The Delaware River forms the western boundary of the

state, a river that supports commercial boat traffic on its southern third and undergoes a slow transition

to shallow, rushing torrent as it progresses past the Delaware Water Gap northward. This variety of habi­tats over a very short distance allows for a variety of mosquito life cycle types. The rapid geologic transition from north to south provides habitat for univoltine Aedes that reach greatest abundance in Canada as well as Aedes, Culex and Psorophora that are distinctly south­ern in distribution. The vast expanses of salt marsh along the coast provide habitat for select estuarine spe­cies and, like all areas, urban centers provide breeding habitat for domestic mosquitoes.

Single Generation Aedes -New Jersey provides habitat for 16 single generation Aedes. They all possess desiccation resistant eggs

, ..

.,

Typical Snowpool

that allow them to spend most of the year in diapause. Univoltine Aedes hatch in early spring, emerge dur­ing April or May and lay eggs that enter diapause until the following season. Although several univoltine Aedes have a geographic distribu­tion that includes the coastal plain, the vast majority are limited to the northern 1/3 of the state. Aedes communis, Ae. implicatus, Ae. intrudens, Ae. provocans and Ae. punctorare very rare and have only been collected from elevations above 450 m near High Point, NJ. The single generation Aedes found in New Jersey fall into 3 different habitat groups. Most of the univoltine Aedes breed in woodland pools which are actually ground depres­sions underlayed with clay in wooded areas that support perched water tables in early spring. The term "snowpool" has been coined as a habitat that is common at high elevations in the northern areas. The snowpool/woodland pool Aedes must pupate and emerge before trees develop leaves because the roots quickly drain the water from this unique larval habitat as soon as the forest begins to show signs of awakening. Larvae that have not pupated become concentrated into

tiny puddles and many get stranded as the habitat dries. Ae. stimulans is New Jersey's most important woodland pool pest, but Ae.

excrucians and Ae. grossbeckii cause nuisance in some areas. New Jersey also has single gen­eration Aedes that breed in swamps and bogs. The lar­vae are rarely, if ever, found in wood­land pools but are common in wet­lands that support aquatic vegetation. These mosquitoes also hatch from eggs in early spring, emerge during the month of May and

lay eggs that enter diapause until the following spring. Ae. abserratus forms the prototype for this life cycle type but Ae. aurifer, Ae. cinereus and A e. fitchii are bog Aedes as well. All of the single generation bog Aedes reach greatest abun ­dance in the north­ern half of the state but most have iso­lated populations on the coastal plain. Culiseta morsitans and Cs. minnesotae are bog species that have winter hardy eggs and undergo this Aedine life cycle type. The third single gen­eration Aedes life cycle type has a major generation in early spring and one or more smaller generations in the fall if the habitats flooded late in the season. The mosquitoes are not restricted to geographic boundaries and func­tion as pests statewide. Most sci­entists feel that the fall hatching in univoltine species represents eggs that failed to hatch during the spring

flooding. Some feel that the mos­quitoes may be bivoltine rather than univoltine. Ae. canadensis is the best example of a single generation mosquito that frequently reappears later the same season. A e. sticticus is a species with this type of life cycle that is fast becoming recog­nized as one of New Jersey's most important mosquito pests.

Multiple Generation Aedes and Psorophora- New Jersey pro­vides habitat for 24 Aedes and Psorophora that undergo multiple generations during each breeding season. Like the univoltine Aedes, this group has desiccation resistant eggs, but the overwintering brood gives rise to a series of generations that hatch with each major flooding event from spring through fall. The multivoltine Aedes and Psorophora found in New Jersey also fall into 3 different habitat groups. There are multiple generation Aedes/ Psorophora that breed in fresh flood­water and rely on rains to hatch each generation during the active season. Most of the multivoltine

Fresh Floodwater

floodwater pests have a statewide distribution but a few are restricted to the coastal plain. Ae. vexans belongs to this group and is recog­nized statewide as New Jersey's most important mosquito pest. Ae. at/anticus is a southern pest that is found only on the coastal plain. Ae. trivittatus reaches greatest abun-

continued on page 11

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Salt Marsh Floodwater

dance in the northwestern portion of New Jersey and is an extremely important regional pest around northern lake communities. Ae. dupreei, Ps. varipes and Ps. dis­color are extremely rare but follow this basic life cycle type. New Jer­sey has multiple generation Aedes that have enough salt tolerance to use coastal salt marshes as their primary breeding habitat. The eggs rely on lunar tides rather than rains and normally produce 2 broods per month from May to October. New moon and full moon tides produce predictable broods of salt marsh mosquitoes. Rains, however, can trigger egg hatch on the marsh and produce additional nuisance. Ae. so/licitans is New Jersey's most important salt marsh mosquito pest but Ae. cantator and Ae. taeniorhynchus belong to this habi­tat type as well. Ae. dorsalis is a western salt marsh pest that occurs in small numbers on some of New Jersey salt marshes. The third multiple generation Aedes life cycle type uses containers as a vehicle to receive their desiccation resistant eggs. The species in this category deposit their eggs just above the wa­terline in containers that will even­tually receive rain water. Ae. triseriatus is New Jersey's most important pest species in this life cycle type but Ae. hendersoni and Ae. atropalpus are container breed­ers as well. Two recently introduced exotics, Ae. albopictus and Ae. japonicus utilize this multivoltine life

cycle type but are found in tires more often than treeholes.

Multiple Generation Anopheles, Culex, Culiseta and Uranotaenia- New Jer­sey provides habitat for 15 multivoltine species that emanate from bodies of permanent water. The members of this multivolt­ine group have eggs that collapse if they dry, thus, the female deposits them

directly on standing water. Most hi­bernate during winter as mated fe­males; a few species overwinter as larvae and one (An. walken) has a winter hardy egg. The mosquitoes that belong to this group are found in 3 different habitat types in New Jersey. Most lay their eggs in fresh­water swamps and undergo mul­tiple generations in this habitat after the bog Aedes have emerged. An. quadri­maculatus is the most com­mon representative of this group and usually shares habitat statewide with Culex territans, An. walkeri, An. punctipennis and Uranotaenia sapphirina. Cx. erraticus is restricted to the coastal plain; An. earlei occurs only at high eleva­tions in northwestern New Jersey. Cx. salinarius, An. bradleyi and An. atropos have salt tolerance and reach greatest concentrations in brackish marshes along the coast. Cx. pipiens, Cx. restuans and Cs. inomata have pollution tolerance and tend to be urban rather than rural pests.

Unique Multiple Generation Container Breeders - A number of non-aedine mosquitoes lay their. eggs in containers and spend their entire larval period in bodies of trapped water. Tin cans, plastic cups and discarded tires represent larval habitats that are provided by mankind. Treeholes, and plant ax-

ils are examples of natural contain­ers that can be utilized by mosqui­toes. Most of the members of this group occur statewide but are rela­tively rare. They also share habitat with the container breeding Aedes which makes their detection that much harder. An. barberi is a treehole anopheline that infrequently occurs in tires. This tiny An. is ex­tremely aggressive and can be pre­dacious on early instar larvae of other container-breeding mosqui­toes. Orthopodomyia signifera and Or. alba are very rare container breeders that favor treeholes with very putrid water. Toxorhynchites rutilus septentrionalis is a container­breeding predator that relies on the larvae of other container-breeding mosquitoes as a constant source of food. Tx. r. septentrionalis has a statewide distribution and overwin­ters as a larva in treehole habitats. Wyeomyia smithii is a unique con-

Early Season Freshwater Swamp

tainer breeding mosquito that is found only in the leaves of the north­ern pitcher plant, a predacious plant that is common in many areas of the New Jersey pine barrens. This tiny mosquito is autogenous at New Jersey's latitude and obtains protein by feeding on the decaying car­casses of insects that have been trapped by the plant. The mosquito undergoes multiple generations dur­ing the summer season and over­winters as a larva in the water trapped by the plant. During the

continued on page 26

Fall 1999 11

Where does education fall in your list of prioritized mosquito/vector control programs? Often, it is listed at the end; however, some put it right at the top. I have heard that education is a waste of time and that "real" mosquito control is surveil­lance, source reduction, biological control, larviciding and adulticiding. A person or an agency may have a

1999 NJ Mosquito Poster Contest Judy Hansen presents winners

good idea, a wonderful product or provide great service to the public but won't be able to market it if the product is not known. Education in mosquito control is a form of mar­keting. Also, it serves the purpose of enlisting assistance in the actual control of mosquitoes.

Dr. John B. Smith, entomologist at Rutgers University at the turn of the century, knew that mosquitoes could be controlled; he offered solid biological data as a basis for pro­posed legislation mandating mos­quito control programs in New Jer­sey. However, Dr. Smith had to con­vince the New Jersey legislature that

12 Fall 1999

controlling mosquitoes was pos­sible and that establishing county mosquito extermination commis­sions under the guidance of the Di­rector of the NJ Agricultural Experi­ment Station was a reasonable ap­proach. He began this endeavor in 1900. He also had to work with health officers to demonstrate that this endeavor was worthy of sepa-

rate agencies outside the Department of Health. Once the legislation was in place, county boards of chosen

1 freeholders (the governing , body for each New Jersey 1

county) had to be educated 1 and persuaded to establish , a county mosquito control

program and accept the mandatory appropriation for mosquito control as origi­nally stipulated in the law. To this day freeholders have to be educated about mosqui­toes and the need for mos-

quito control in order to maintain effective county mosquito control programs.

The Proceedings of the New Jer­

quito can be controlled. Before we can obtain the proper local support, information of a very convincing character will have to be spread among us."

Also at this meeting it was noted that in 1901 the South Orange Im­provement Association (in Essex County) under the direction of Spen­cer Miller "initiated a campaign against the pests and secured Dr. l. 0. Howard, entomologist for the United States Department of Agri­culture, to lecture in South Orange on the subject. Following this lec­ture the South Orange Improvement Association carried out a campaign throughout the season and each season following until the work was taken up on a broader basis. The local campaign against mosquitoes ... continued steadily each year until it was taken over by the Essex County Mosquito Exter­mination Commission and carried on under the provisions of Chapter 104, Laws of 1912 which called for every county to establish a mos­quito Commission. Beginning in 1902, similar activity had started in

Bill Zawicki at 1997

sey Mosquito Control Association's first an­nual meeting in Atlantic City on February 20 and 21, 1914 contained sev­eral references empha­sizing the importance of education in the field of mosquito control. Mr. C.H. Cranmer, Board of Health member in Ocean County, reported at this meeting, "'The dif­ficulty in our county is that the people do not believe that the mos-

NJ Mosquito Expo at Trenton, NJ

Elizabeth , Union County." Dr. Jacob G. Lipman, Director of the NJ Agricultural Experiment Station, added "It is, therefore, a question of education. The taxpayers in Essex and Union Counties have been edu­cated, but those in other counties of the State have not been educated to this extent or not at all, and edu­cational work must be continued."

Also at the 1914 meeting, Mr.

"We expect to start with a small sum of money, which will be devoted to educational and demonstrational work with the idea of so convinc­ing the people of the value of the work that The Board of Freehold­ers may the following year appro­priate suffi­cient money

may result in educating the parents at home. In a thank you note follow­ing a presentation, fourth grader

Walter Evans, Director of the Essex County Board of Chosen Freehold­ers stated, "I think it is of the utmost importance that a vigorous cam­paign of education be commenced for the purpose of arousing public sentiment in favor of this work which has been so satisfactorily begun in Essex County, and that through the mail , the attention of the people should be continually called to the dangers of existing conditions and the great benefits that would be reaped from a persistent success­ful fight against this plague." Dr. Thomas Headlee, New Jersey Ag­ricultural Experiment Station, stated at this meeting " ... most of the troubles which we experience in the carrying out of this law has been the result of trying to carry on mosquito extermination work in counties

to carry on a more extensive campaign."

Know Mosquitoes Board Game

Repeated educational efforts had to be undertaken to get mos­quito control accepted and estab­lished in New Jersey. This was a critical part of the early process and an essential component to "real" mosquito control programs. One of the early activities undertaken around 1920 involved the produc­tion of a teaching manual and a motion picture. The manual made a simple statement concerning the New Jersey mosquito problem and showed the means taken to solve it. This manual was intended for use

••

by students from the eighth through twelfth grades. Cooperation from the state commis­sioner of education came in the form of a recommenda­tion to county and city superinten­dents of schools for inclusion as regular part of their course in biology. Some 119,000cop­ies of the manual were produced.

Today, reaching out to schools is

Jim McNelly in the classroom encouraged by

where the people are not sufficiently informed in the nature and value of it to support it." Dr. Headlee, refer­ring to Middlesex County reported,

teachers and welcomed by stu­dents. A change of pace and a break from the regular teacher can be the foundation for an attentive audience. Distributing literature to students

Rose Turney wrote "Thank you for that program on mosquitoes. It was very interesting. My dad read the paper you gave us. I learned a lot about mosquitoes."

Recently, the AMCA Public Re­lations and Education Committee, developed a game to be used for public education. Jim McNelly, Rutgers University, has followed up on this idea. With funding made available through the AMCA's part­nership in the US Department of En­vironmental Protection Agency's Pesticide Environmental Steward­ship Program and support from the AMCA Board of Directors, 3,000 copies of a board game, titled "KNOW MOSQUITOES", are being produced. The game is geared to­ward elementary school children and has players start at a school and travel through various environs en route to their local mosquito control office by answering mosquito re­lated questions. Consider using it in your district in the future.

Residents can be of significant help in surveillance and actual con­trol efforts. While at times other in­sects are mistaken for mosquitoes, almost everyone knows an adult mosquito when they see it. Some districts have limited personnel for conducting landing rates to identify the problem species and/or to jus-

continued on page 24

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Bally's Park Place

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ONE FORM PER PERSON/ PLEASE DUPLICATE

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In 1977 mosquito control in New Jersey suffered a huge setback trig­gered by a piece of legislation and a court decision. These two items had more of a deleterious effect on mos­quito control than the profession was prepared to deal with.

The law that was passed re­moved authority from the Director of the New Jersey Agricultural Ex­periment Station to determine the necessary se'rvices and the amount of required funding to be raised by taxation for each of the County Mos­quito Extermination Commissions. This responsibility was placed in the hands of the County Boards of Cho­sen Freeholders, the elected officials charged with the responsibility of governing each of New Jersey's twenty-one counties.

The impact was felt immediately. Instead of budgets being determined on the basis of scientific rationale and need, mosquito commissions were now competing against other county departments and agencies

·for a slice of the county tax dollar. In most counties we didn't compete very well , basically because we were scientists, not businessmen.

During 1978, while speaking be­fore the New Jersey Mosquito Con­trol Association, Ronald Altman, M.D., then Director of the New Jer­sey Department of Health (NJDOH) Division Of Communicable Disease pointed out that nobody was ad­dressing the issue of tick manage­ment, and that tick transmitted dis­eases were emerging as a serious public health threat.

When Carmen Stoppiello be­came a Commissioner of the MCMEC in 1987, he advocated a program for the Commission that

18 Fall 1999

· :·.·-:-·.·-by~~ "~;::_.~ ·.-

would be designed to build partner­ships with the municipalities, other counties, the State and the private sector. He immediately recognized that there were numerous opportu­nities to provide services that were tangential to mosquito control. He knew we couldn't legally participate in any activities that were not di­rectly related to mosquito control due to the regulations imposed by the laws of New Jersey.

In 1988, Dr. Donald J. Sutherland, Chairman of the Depart­ment of Entomology at Rutgers Uni­versity and Past President of the American Mosquito Control Asso­ciation, encouraged me to pursue the idea of expanding the role of mosquito control agencies to include tick management. In 1989 he sent me considerable information con­cerning the Federal Comprehensive Lyme Disease Act that was enacted during that year.

On April11 , 1989 the Monmouth County Loss Prevention Consult­ants notified the Monmouth County Administrator that Lyme Disease was becoming a serious workers compensation problem within our County.

I then contacted the MCMEC at­torney to determine whether we could become involved in tick man­agement. His response was that we couldn't undertake work of any nature unless it was related to mos­quito Control.

Carmen was elected to the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders in November of 1989. During his first term he served as the Freeholder liaison to the Com­mission. He became an outspoken public advocate for mosquito con-

troland took an active role in the New Jersey Association of Counties, where he extolled the necessity of counties expanding their mosquito control programs.

From 1990 through 1991 the County addressed its tick manage­ment activities by continued involve­ment with the NJDOH through the Monmouth County Health Depart­ment, Monmouth County Shade Tree Commission and the Freehold Area Health Department. In other words, everybody but us!

In April1991, I contacted William Parkin, M.D. Assistant Commis­sioner of the NJDOH regarding the possibility of getting legislation en­acted that would establish a state­wide network of mosquito control agencies with expanded mandate to manage Lyme Disease vectors. Dr. Parkin was supportive and sug­gested that we attend to share our thoughts with the Governor's Lyme Disease Advisory Council.

Soon thereafter, Dr. Wayne J. Crans, of the Mosquito Research and Control Unit at Rutgers Univer­sity, and I attended a meeting of that body. The members of the Council appeared to listen to us but, with the exception of Dr. Parkin, they asked no questions, and immediately af­ter our presentation the Chairman told us to leave.

In 1991 Carmen spearheaded a program that resulted in the MCMEC staff becoming involved in an experimental tick-management program with the New Jersey De­partment of Health & Senior Ser­vices (NJDHSS), Rutgers Coopera­tive Extension, Freehold Area Health Department and the Monmouth County Shade Tree Commission.

The study involved ground based applications of acaricide.

By 1992, Monmouth County was becoming more involved in develop­ing a partnership with Dr. Louis Vasvary, Rutgers Cooperative Ex­tension and Dr. Schulze, NJDHSS. In May of 1992 our Commission at­torney gave approval for the Com­mission pilot to participate in the experimental field trials for tick man­agement through aerial applications of acaricide. These are the results of field trials that generated consid­erable controversy within the mos­quito control community:

1. We learned that aerial appli­cations of acaricide were probably not the most effective modality for killing what were then referred to as deer ticks.

2. We found out that there were factions within the mosquito control community who believed that we had no business becoming involved in tick management or any non-mosquito activities.

3. We learned that many of our colleagues feared that any change in the State Statutes relating to con­trol would result in negatively im­pacting the existing laws and dimin­ishing our capabilities.

It was following this episode that I became more determined that we would have legislation enacted that

would allow mosquito commissions to assume this additional responsi­bility. We would achieve this goal by building partnerships.

The initial draft legislation mim­icked the State mosquito control statutes as these laws had with­stood the test of time with consid­erable success.

This generated considerable concern among the mosquito con­trol community. A committee of members of the NJMCA met with the commissioners of the MCMEC. The concerns of the association members were understandable. Each time the mosquito statutes were amended in the last twenty years, the results were negative.

The meeting was very worth­while except for one committee member who commented that if we wanted to undertake tick-related work we should dissolve our com­mission.

I rewrote the legislation so that it would be under the Lyme Disease section of the statutes. If you haven't figured it out yet New Jer­sey has a law for almost everything. We included a section that would require that any funding for tick-re­lated activities be separate from the mosquito control budget, and also excluded from the State "cap" law, which sets a limit on how much a

AM MIA

governing body can raise taxes in a year. This was to satisfy those members who feared that they would be told to undertake these activities without the necessary funding. Ultimately both of those items were included in the approved legislation.

During the next 1112 years we worked diligently with Dr. Terry Schulze and Ken Fordyce, the new Chairman of the Governor's Lyme Disease Advisory Council, in an at­tempt to get a sponsor for this leg­islation. We were disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm exhibited by legislators to sponsor what we thought to be a win/win situation.

In May of 1994 I had the opportu­nity to meet with the newly ap­pointed State Commissioner of Health, Len Fishman. I discussed my proposal with him and he seemed genuinely interested and supportive. I immediately confirmed the discussion that we had at our meeting in writing and he responded by offering the participation of Dr. Schulze on behalf of the NJDHSS.

On January 9, 1995 the Com­missioners of the MCMEC adopted a resolution urging enactment of leg­islation that would enable mosquito commissions to undertake tick man­agement activities. On February 23, 1995 the Monmouth County Board

continued on page 22

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I Tile Use of fil1l ia llasl(lliiD ca.tra1 ~-tile llartllastU.S_

The concept of biological control of mosquitoes is not a new one. It is, however, one that has had a hard time getting off the ground in some districts for a variety of reasons. The development and use of certain parasites and pathogens may be in- _ timidating to some, unless offered commercially with "how to" instruc­tions. Introducing predacious or­ganisms such as fish is a concept not unfamiliar to most, but tends to be cost-prohibitive. These pitfalls can terminate a biological control effort before it begins.

Some mosquito control pro­grams have been geared to the control of various stages of the mosquito life cycle and at­tempts have been made to es­tablish self-sufficient bio-con­trol programs. Throughout the country, some have suc­ceeded. This paper presents two programs established in the northeast which have suc­ceeded in developing a larval con­trol program using fish.

Many may be familiar with the effectiveness of various marine fish species as the biological mosquito control agents that are associated with Open Marsh Water Manage­ment. The two programs described herein are oriented to controlling mosquitoes in fresh water mosquito habitat utilizing several different fish species. Most mosquito control pro­fessionals are familiar with the mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis. Our programs, however, have de­veloped stocks of freshwater killi­fish, fat-head minnows, several spe-

20 Fall 1999

by ~~ 7::ea aH4 ~ s~-"71~

cies of sunfish and the methods used to distribute them. One of these programs is operated state­wide in New Jersey; the other as part of a county mosquito control project in Massachusetts.

The use of freshwater fish in a mosquito control program has usu­ally meant a dependence on a source of Gambusia affinis. They are commercially available, expen-

Gambusia affinis

sive and may also have temperate restrictions on their survival and ef­ficiency. There also may be environ­mental restrictions or concerns about releasing this species into new habitat.

The use of other mosquito-eat­ing species has been reported in the literature. While the use of residen­tial sunfish in mosquito control has been successful, other species na­tive to the habitat differ in their larval control efficiency. They also may have different environmental re­quirements for their survival.

How to address these different requirements posed a challenge to

mosquito control workers in the northeast. A readily available, healthy stock of fish in adequate numbers requires a major facility, effort and staff. Knowledge of the bi­ology of each species, its habitat, range and role in the ecosystem is paramount. Finally, the support of the operational aspect of such a pro­gram requires the resources to do so. It became clear to state mos­

quito control officials that ad­dressing these problems re­quired a practical solution.

In New Jersey, as in most states, there exists a division of government dedicated to managing the state's re­sources. The N.J. Office of Mosquito Control Coordination (the administrative headquar­ters of the N.J. State Mosquito Control Commission) is a component of the N.J. Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife. A Bureau, also within the Divi­

sion, is dedicated to freshwater fish­eries. This bureau conducts fish­eries-related research, operates two fish hatcheries and annually stocks New Jersey streams, lakes and ponds with various species of game and forage fish. The Bureau has divided the state by drainage areas, with each supervised by staff biolo­gists. It was only natural that all the agencies collaborate to develop the New Jersey Bio-Control (mosquitofish) Program for mos­quito control.

Step one involved the develop­ment of a policy around which the program would run. Soon to follow was an estimation of cost, equip-

ment needs, operational protocol, environmental issues and the com­position of a bulletin or booklet which

Transportation tanks

would address the "how to" aspects of using the program.

Implementation of the program began with an initial stock of Gam­busia affinis. These fish were used as brood stock at the fish hatchery in Hackettstown, in order to develop an almost unlimited amount of indi­viduals for mosquito control. Next, the State Mosquito Control Commis­sion agreed to annually provide dedi­cated funds to the Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife to cover expen­ditures of the Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries. Then, four oxygen bottle­equipped fish transportation tanks were purchased, the size of which allowed for their transfer from truck to truck, thus enabling community servicing from county-to-county mosquito control district.

The booklet about the stocking program describes how any of New Jersey's county mosquito control agencies may, by following estab­lished policy and protocol, obtain a truck-tank full of healthy mosquito fish, and stock mosquito-breeding habitat with them. There is no charge to the counties for these fish, as part of the State Mosquito Con­trol Commissions state-aid to coun­ties program. Since 1990, the pro­gram has offered over 150,000 fish per year.

Fish are distributed throughout the mosquito season. An indoor over-wintering facility at the hatch­

ery allows for early spring stocking to take place by April. The hatchery's outdoor brood rearing ponds and raceways are used as needs expand in the summertime. Fisher­ies biologists are readily available to deal with disease issues, habitat limitations and applica­bility of other mosquito larvivorous fish spe­cies as they become more and more famil­iar with the needs of the

mosquito control community. On the other hand, the New Jersey mos­quito control community is also learning more and more about mos­quito-eating fish as their use in­creases.

The Research and Development Committee of the New Jersey Mos­quito Control Association is com­posed of staff biologists from the various county mosquito control agencies around the state. They have spent several mosquito sea­sons studying the use of these fish in the field. As a result, some inter­esting information about the stock­ing rates of mosquito fish has been published (N.J.M.C.A. Proc. 83:95-102).

In Massachusetts the approach to starting a mosquito control pro­gram utilizing fish has been very dif­ferent. Mosquito control programs (called "projects") in that state are organized under the jurisdiction of the State Reclamation Board. This Board is placed in the state's De­partment of Agriculture, which is an agency separate from the Massa­chusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. There is, therefore, no sys­tem in place for the mass produc­tion or release of fish for the pur­pose of mosquito control. In order to expand to a control program in the individual mosquito control dis-

tricts, a bio-control program, which utilizes fish had to begin as a re­search project.

In 1993, the Cape Cod Mosquito Control Project began to examine the potential of using fish in its day to day control operation. Gambu­sia sp. are not native to Cape Cod and the laws of the Commonwealth do not permit their importation and/ or release. The mosquito control project then decided to examine the potential of using native fish for mos­quito control.

The biological control agent se­lected for this work was the Banded Sunfish, Enneacanthus obesus. The decision to use this species was reached after much literary re­search, discussion with fisheries biologists, and field work, which in­volved several different fish species. Research observations revealed that this species is able to survive throughout the year in a freshwater swam·p. Further, the Banded Sun-

9 Mosquitofish Fact Sheet f<i:>

Mo<qu;IO ilKJI\ 'l'l'lrtl: .... o.w

~lnf'Qoktc,_& ~20_,.~

., ......... .,.,~~cy.a""' ~-·-"~dl.• .. toorc:.~~oL.-v•IOIS~ !NUIIIo()'<Wo.mct. ~I!IOiqDUoD .. ~.]1!>-Cibt.po"'''Il .. ~orill~ -

-.... ..... ...... _,. uo .....

fish were found to readily feed on mosquito larvae in this habitat.

Since reproduction of a quantity of fish would be necessary for mos­quito control practices, the next goal for the Cape Cod program was to determine if these fish could be stimulated to spawn in captivity. With the resources of the state

continued on page 23

Fall 1999 21

continued from page 19

of Chosen Freeholders, by re.solu­tion encouraged the Monmouth Leg­islative Delegation to take the lead in sponsoring this legislation.

Freeholder Stoppiello and MCMEC President Lionel H.R. Schusterman, who was previously a campaign manager for Senator John 0. Bennett, the newly elected Senate Majority Leader, made per­sonal contact with the Senator. Let me interject that the mysteries of life are stranger and stranger. Sean Kean, a kid whom I coached against in little league was now the chief aide to the Senator and was very helpful in moving the bill through the legis­lative maze.

On March 31, 1995 Sean notified us that Senator Bennett would be honored to sponsor the bill. It cer­tainly didn't hurt that he also hap­pened to be the Senate Majority Leader. Bennett claimed that the public response he received follow­ing the announcement that he was sponsoring this legislation was

among the best he's ever gotten. We thought for sure that this Bill would get fast tracked. No way!

On April9, 1995 the Asbury Park Press, calling it a "virtual no­brainer'', endorsed the initiative in a major editorial. Certainly with the support of the media and the public the light at the end of the tunnel was near. Not exactly!

On May 8, 1995 Senator Bennett introduced S-1944. The bill was given a name, number and commit­tee referral. This sounds like being sentenced for committing a crime. We never realized how long the sentence would be.

On June 27, 1995 Senator Bennett was contacted by the New Jersey Environmental Federation (NJEF) an environmental activist coalition that claims to have major concerns regarding this legislation.

On the following day I wrote to NJDHSS Commissioner Fishman requesting support for the bill.

Crunch time was approaching and we needed all of the help that we could gather. He responded on 8/ 24/95 with some degree of equivo­cation. " There were many factors that must be weighed and consid­ered" and "support from the NJDHSS could not be anticipated at this time."

On November 19, 1995 the At­lantic City Press called the proposed legislation a good idea but urged that we go slowly with the application of pesticides. The Atlantic City Press only heard one side of the issue and based their editorial on less than all of the information. This was a mi­nor setback.

During this time period Schulze and I held a series of meetings with Jane Nogaki, an environmental ac­tivist and NJEF pesticide coordina­tor, and Dolores Phillips, the full-time paid lobbyist of the NJEF, concern­ing the wording of the legislation. We were close to reaching an

continued on page 34

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Fall 1999

continued from a e 21

Division of Fisheries and Wildlife unavailable, Cape Cod Mosquito Control Project staff turned to the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole. It was there that it was proven that by introducing Human Cy­clic Gonadothrophic Hor­mone (HCG), this species could be raised in a captive environment. The labora-tory staff remains an impor- NJ Fish & Game truck stocking hatchery fish tant source of technical in­formation in the continuation of this research.

At this point, field sites have been selected, stocked and evaluated. Mosquito surveillance strategies and fish surveys have yielded infor­mation, which has demonstrated the fish's ability to breed, and to be stocked and survive in mosquito breeding habitat. Mosquito species­specific targeting was done to con­trol Cu/iseta me/anura in the fresh-

water swamp habitat. Gut content studies performed on recaptured sunfish have revealed this mosquito to be the preferred food source of the fish in late fall/ early winter. Mos­quito survey data confirmed the ef­ficiency of the bio-control agent in these sites.

The Cape Cod effort stimulated the New Jersey group to consider the use of other species in mosquito breeding habitats less appropriate for Gambusia stocking. The state mosquito-fish program, working with the Bureau of Freshwater Fish-

eries staff, now offers four additional fish species. In areas where the habitat and targeted mosquito spe­cies allow for it, the program now stocks the Fathead Minnow, Pimphales promela; the Freshwa­ter Killifish, Fundulus diaphanus; the Blue Gill Sunfish, Leopomis macrochirus; and the Pumkinseed Sunfish, Leopomis gibbosus.

The future of these programs calls for the evaluation of additional

species as bio-control agents. The efficiency of these fish as mosquito con­trol agents, their distribution and environmental impacts are all significant factors to­ward success. No less im­portant has been the coop­erative professional environ­ment that the involved agen­cies have created.

Robert Kent is the Principal Biologist with the NJ Depart­ment of Environmental Protection, Office of Mos­quito Control Coordination, Trenton, NJ and Gabrielle Sakolsky-Hoopes is an Ento­mologist for the Cape Cod Mosquito Control Project, Yarmouth Port, MA.

emaii:BKENT@dep.state.nj.us.

Fall 1999 23

continued from page 13

Larval surveillance exercise during an Open House

tify adulticidal applications. Once educated, residents are often willing to aid in surveillance efforts by col­lecting mosquitoes that are in their yard. Light traps are provided and picked up by local mosquito control personnel.

On the other hand, most people don't know what mosquito larvae or pupae look like. Without knowing this and without the knowledge that standing water is neces­sary for breeding mosquitoes, they can­not be of assistance. I carried home a breeder with larvae from a tire for an evening municipal meeting and a neigh­borhood teenager recognized them as mosquito larvae. When asked how she knew, she stated , "I saw them at the county fair." When the residents do know these basic facts, they recognize the prob­lem and are far more likely to do some­thing about it, whether this involves elimi­nating standing water in their yard, signing a right-of-entry agreement to allow a dis­trict to conduct water management activi-ties on their property or to be cooperative in allowing (not objecting to) the application of insecti­cides when necessary. This kind of education can be accomplished through presentations at schools, county fairs, scout functions and civic meetings as well as through displays at meetings attended by gov­erning officials and legislators, and, of course, re­sponding to citizen complaints can be an excellent forum for one-on-one education. Educational activi­ties can be carried out at any time of year but are particularly encouraged during "National Mosquito Con­trol Awareness Week" which was established by the

24 Fall 1999

AMCA in 1997 in order for mosquito profes­sionals to consolidate their efforts and speak with a louder voice. When given the knowl­edge, people are appreciative and often will­ing to help eliminate mosquito breeding on their property.

Educating the general public helps in­crease the understanding of a scientifically based, environmentally sensitive approach to mosquito control and the reasons for do­ing so. Education helps smooth the path by lessening possible opposition from residents in the area, anti-pesticide groups, local, county, state and federal officials and legis­lators. This facilitates the ability of mosquito control districts to get the job done. Educat­ing governing officials gives them a better understanding of how funds are to be uti­lized when it comes to deciding what appro-priation you receive to run your program.

Educational efforts were necessary to establish soundly structured mosquito control programs.

Lab tour during a school presentation

Education should hold a high position in any mosquito control program in an ongoing effort to provide and maintain effective mosquito control.

Christine P. Musa is the Superintendent of the Warren County Mosquito Control Commission, Oxford, NJ

email: mosquito@nac.net

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continued from a e 11

Pitcher Plant

dead of winter, the larvae freeze in a block of ice but revive quickly as soon as the larval habitat thaws.

Unique New Jersey Mosquito Life Cycles - New Jersey provides habitat for 2 univoltine and 1 bivoltine mosquito species that do not directly fit into any of the categories listed above. None of these species are limited in their distribution to the state of New Jersey but most are relatively common in specialized larval habitats in selected regions of the state. Ae. thibaultiis a univoltine Ae. that lives in subterranean crypts in permanent swamps. The spe­cies is relatively common in red maple swamps on the coastal plain but the larvae are rarely collected because they are only present dur­ing the months of February, March and early April. The mosquito was thought to have a decidedly south­ern distribution in New Jersey until it was discovered in the cavity of a red maple tree growing in a snowpool near High Point. Its abil­ity to invade temporary larval habi­tats explains the existence of iso­lated adult collections of this spe­cies as far north as Canada where permanent swamp larval habitat does not exist. Cs. me/anura is another mosquito that utilizes sub-

26 Fall 1999

terranean larval habitats reaching greatest abundance in crypts found in Atlantic White Cedar swamps on the coastal plain of New Jersey. This mosquito overwinters as a larva and appears to have only 2 genera­tions each year. Extracting Cs. me/anura larvae from crypt habitats in dense cedar swamps is time con­suming and separating the larvae from debris makes larval collection tedious. As a result, specialized equipment is needed to sort for this relatively common subterranean cavity breeder. Sampling for Cs. me/anura revealed that two other species overwinter as larvae and share subterranean habitat during the winter months. An. crucians is a multivoltine freshwater swamp breeder that overwinters in the lar­val stage. The mosquito is cryptic as an adult with An. bradleyi, a brackish water anopheline that is

,Cedar Swamp

particularly abundant throughout most of the coastal plain. Separat­ing the adults is difficult but the lar­vae are diagnostic. Most of the An. crucians larvae we have been able to obtain have been taken during the winter months. Coqui/lettidia perturbans is another very common freshwater swamp species that is very difficult to collect as a larva. Both the larval and pupal stages at­tach to the roots of aquatic plants and do not come to the surface to breathe. The mosquito has an ex-

ceptionally slow metabolism and undergoes only one extended gen­eration each year. Cattail is the aquatic plant that is most often as­sociated with Cq. perturbans but the species is actually more common on sedge (Carex) , rush (Juncus) and swamp loosestrife (Decodon). Winter sampling indicates that the larvae also attach to the roots of At­lantic White Cedar and share habi­tat with Cs. me/anura in some areas.

Conclusions

Mosquito control workers do not like to use the term "Mosquito State" to describe the state of New Jersey but the nickname certainly conveys the multitude of breeding habitats found in this small geographic area. A number of species can be col­lected as larvae throughout the win­ter and the appearance of species

that hatch from over­wintering eggs begins in February. The months of April and May produce a suc­cession of univoltine mosquito species that occur in a wide vari­ety of larval habitats. Species that overwin­ter as mated females add their eggs as soon as the nights are warm enough and summer rains pro­duce multivoltine spe­cies that repeatedly hatch from eggs. The habitats range from

snowpool to salt marsh and perma­nent swamp to container. At latest count, this combination provides habitat for 62 different species.

Wayne Crans is a Professor at the Department of Entomology, Rutgers University

email: wcrans@ rci.rutgers.edu

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At about 8:30PM Thursday, Septem­ber 2, 1999, I received a phone call from my Health Commissioner, Dr. Clare Bra­dley. She informed me that New York City (NYC) was reporting some 15 cases of what was then thought to be St. Louis encephalitis (SLE), that two cases were fatal, and that the City was requesting Suffolk County's assistance. Thus be­~an _my inv?lvement in a large story that rs strll evolvrng. Only later would we find that we were dealing with West Nile vi­rus (WNV), and that the problem was region-wide in scope. The whole pic­ture of this ongoing event involves far too many people and organizations for a short article to accurately portray. From what I directly observed, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) the New York City and State Health Departments and the Health Departments of Nassau and Su~olk C?ounties deserve high praise for­therr raprd and professional response to what proved to be an unprecedented situ­ation.

. I will try provide Wing Beats readers a frrst hand account of the response' dur­ing the first few days after the West-Nile outbreak was discovered. Over the win­ter, there will be a complete analysis of this important event. I am also confi­dent that appropriate steps will be taken to prevent a repeat of a situation that made New York's largest city and the entire eastern U.S. all too aware of mos­quito control as a-public health issue.

My first reaction was to call my coun­terpart at_ Nas~u County Public Works, Gregory Terrillion. Nassau County is immedi~tely_east of the NYC borough of Queens;, :w~rle Suffolk County occupies

,, the remarnrng two thirds of Long Island. yvhne Suffolk County was probably called

· rn because we have the largest mosquito control program in New York State Nassau County is not far behind. 1 wa~ not ab~ut to let Greg and his 26 years of mosqurto control experience enjoy his Labor Day weekend with this situation

DIE

going on next door. We agreed that we should go into the City the next day and provide whatever help we could.

All the reported cases at that time seemed to be in the Whitestone area of northern Queens, a mostly middle class r~sidential area with closely spaced srngle and two-family homes and some small apartment buildings. I was asked to meet with NYC officials at a site near Pelham Bay Park, a small salt marsh on the East River, By the time 1 got there a dozen or so officials were talk­ing on cell phones, NYC police were di­recting traffic, and half dozen NY State Conservation Police were on the scene. More representatives from various CitY and State agencies continued to arrive and the City's mobile headquarters fo~ the Mayor's Office of Emergency Man­agement (OEM) Wa& rolled into1he area. The a~pearanc&~f a portable podium made rt clear that,Mayor Giuliani was on the way. ·

It was Uflder these circumstances that I met Jery H~uer, head of OEM, and the person who would run the New York City response. Mr. Hauer proved to_ be an amazingly quick study and a person who had-the authority and the will to quickly summon resources and cut red tape in a manner few of us asso­ciate with government. He deserves tre­mend_ous credit for organizing the City's_ massrvereseonse to the virus. Over the -next few weeks, Mr. Hauer would mobi­lize hundreds of people and coordinate the activities of all,the involved .City, State and Federal agencies that wouiCtwork in the City .. Spray contractors were hired, pesticide_ bought, neighborhoods · were leafleted in six languages and tens o! th_ousands of cans of repellent were drstrrbut~~- Eventually, an entire city of seven mrlhon people was treated at least twice. ·

Greg and I ~ere given maps of the reported cases. I overflew the area in a NYC Police helicopter. It was clear that

--

aerial adulticiding was the primary re­sponse that would be needed, along with ground ULV and follow-up larval control. Th~re were no obvious target areas for aerral larvicide, since the cases were from high and dry residential areas with­out swamps or other natural larval habi­tats. Both our programs use Scourge for ground ULV, but Greg and I agreed th~t malathi~n (Fyfanon) was the appro­pnate matenal to use for aerial adulticide despite some concern that use of an OP would be controvel'$iaL W~ based tflis assessment on the consistent success my ~rogram has had with aerial Fyfanon • agarn~t salt marsh mosquitoes, and. on the mrxed re$ults Lhave had with aerial pyrethroids. These r~sults were con~ sistent with those ·of our colleagues in ~ew Jersey, a very strong consideration rn my mind. This is not to say !hat other products would not have wo~ed, and in­deed, Anvil (sumithrin) was'eventually used a great deal.. In addition, there was the practical matter that our heli- l copter contractor, John Sondgeroth of No~h Fork Helicopters, was the only aerral contractor available on such short , notice, and he was equipped and set up for Fyfanon. We made that recommen­dation to NYC, and CDC and the New York State and City Health Departments concurred.

When ~ayo_r Giuliani arrived, Greg a~d,_l were called to the OEM van, along wrth _Hauer and representatives of the ~ity He~lt~ D~partment and other agen­cres. GruJranr was briefed on the situa­tion, including the number of cases, their · location, the need for repellents and other personal protection and our recomrrien- - ~ dations for the aerial and ground ~dulticiding. He made a brief presenta­tion to the media that accurately com­municated what he had been told com­plete with a demonstration of applying rnsect repellent. This was the official beginning of the City's response.

continued on page 31

Fall 1999 29

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continued from page 29

Once the decision to spray had been made, there were numerous logistical problems that had to be solved on the Friday before Labor Day. North Fork's Bell So loy was flying in from almost 1 00 miles away in Suffolk County, while the refueling truck was driving in. My ware­house in Yaphank, some 50 miles away, held the only accessible supply of Fyfanon. Because Governor Pataki had pledged full State cooperation, arrange­ments were made for the State Environ­mental Conservation Police to provide a lights and siren escort for a Suffolk County truck to bring the material in. A nearby ball field was chosen as a land­ing zone, and the helicopter and its pay­load came together. Meanwhile, Greg contacted his staff and arranged for Nassau County ground ULV units to spray the following morning. As events unfolded, Greg and I split the work, with Nassau County handling ground ULV and larviciding while Suffolk helped with the aerial work.

NYC was very conscious of the fact that these were densely populated ar­eas that were unfamiliar with and unpre-

pared for large-scale pesticide applica­tions. Within hours, over 15,000 leaflets were prepared, describing the need for spraying, suggesting that residents avoid the spray, and outlining personal protec­tion against mosquitoes. We agreed that residential areas should not be treated until leaflets were distributed, and several hundred city workers set out to accomplish this. As evening ap­proached, spray maps were prepared, and the helicopter began treating vacant and other non-residential areas. As leaf­lets were distributed and areas "cleared", residential areas were treated. Approxi­mately 2,000 acres were treated by he­licopter that evening, and a similar acre­age by ground, not bad for a start. A landing site was set up in a cleared area in the park, next to the OEM headquar­ters van.

The following day, Dr. Dennis White, entomologist from the New York State Department of Health, and Dr. Scott Campbell from Suffolk County Health Services arrived. They began a sam­pling program, and identified a sewage treatment plant and poorly maintained

swimming pools as possible sources of the Culexpipiensvector, while ruling out an abandoned airport as a major prob­lem. Greg had his Nassau County staff bring in Vectolex CG and they switched from adult to larval control

Saturday evening brought ideal con­ditions for aerial adulticiding, with tem­peratures around 80°F and an 8 MPH breeze from the east. All of northern Queens had received leaflets, printed in six languages, including Spanish, Ko­rean, Chinese and Arabic. Approxi­mately 7,000 acres in Queens and the southern Bronx (locations for other cases) were treated that night, finishing the entire 140 gallons of Fyfanon that we had on hand in Suffolk County. The helicopter treated the area where the news media were gathered, producing a mild malathion odor but no other ill ef­fects. Fortunately, the general impres­sion was "gee, that wasn't so bad", and that set the tone for the initial press cov­erage. This treatment covered the en­tire focus area where all the cases to that point (over 30 and growing) had been found.

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Fall 1999 31

This led to increased ground and aerial adulticiding in the areas with the most dead birds. As I write this, it now ap­pears horses were affected in eastern Suffolk, and birds with WNV have been found throughout the County. We now know this is a regional, perhaps even a national, problem.

Coming Events

Dodd Plenary Courses January 24-28, 2000 Gainesville Sheraton Gainesville, FL For more information contact Shelly Redovan Phone: (941) 694-217 4 or visit FMCA's website at www.floridamosquito.org

MMCA Annual Meeting February 3-4, 2000 Shanty Creek Resort Bellaire, Michigan For more information contact Mary McGarry, Program Chair Phone: (517) 894-4555

I At that point, much of what I could

do was finished. Greg and I continue to provide technical assistance, but by Wednesday, Dr. Roger Nasci and other CDC staff arrived, and Dr. White was still on scene to advise the City. Since the City was in such capable hands, it was time for me to concentrate on my own program. Naturally, the scare in the City had made Suffolk County resi­dents very mosquito conscious. My of­fice received over 800 calls from the pub­lic in 5 days, requesting spray and re­porting any potential breeding site. Our spray program normally winds down af­ter Labor Day. Instead, all larval control crews were on overtime, and all three of our ULV trucks were operating. Surveil­lance was stepped up, especially for Culex pipiens. Many Suffolk residents discovered for the first time that they had an ongoing mosquito control program, complete with surveillance, and that this was why there was no need at that time to spray the entire county.

The weather has now cooled to the point where adulticiding is no longer effective. It is now time to focus on re­questing supplementary budgets to deal with a new virus threat that can appear anywhere in Suffolk's 911 square miles. Clearly, we will have to step up larvicidingand larval surveillance to include storm sewers and catch basins. Our surveillance program, currently oriented toward Eastern Equine Encephalitis, will need to be expanded. At all levels of government, there is a great deal of research and preparation that will need to be done if we are to understand and properly deal with this issue. Next year will hold many new challenges for mosquito control and pub­lic health officials. If the actions wit­nessed this year are any guide, I would say we will rise to the occasion.

Southeast Regional Public Health Pest & Vector Management Conf.

For the next three weeks, we were working under the assumption that the problem was SLE and it was probably limited to urban areas. On Friday, Sep­tember 24, we received word from the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) that we had dead crows in western Suffolk, and they had some form of encephalitis. Ground ULV trucks were diverted to the area. Over the weekend, it became clear to CDC and other health officials that WNV (then called 'West Nile-like virus) was present in our area, and the culprit, we now know, for the human and animal cases.

Dominick V. Ninivaggi is the"' Superintendent of the Suffolk County DPW i1>ivision:of Vector ·Control '~~ ·

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Dear Editor:

Wing Beats (Vol.1 0 No.3) reached my mailbox this morning. As always it made good breakfast reading. I was surprised, though, to note the omission of an impor­tant piece of information in the View­point: The Impact of Mosquitoes on Wildlife: Challenging Some As­sumptions by Truls Jensen and Robert J. Novak. While they men­tioned "pathogens", avian malaria is by far the most important of these in the present context.

One of the most important impacts of mosquitoes on wildlife is that many of the culicines serve as vectors of various species of Plas­modium causing avian and other

·6-

1111 'L\l'F.'( V\ \I''(,.\ If H \,JR 'I -.~ , > f '•

non-human malarias such as rep­tilian ones.

Avian malarias, for example the most widespread and commonest one, Plasmodium relictum, can cause severe sickness and death.

There's an abundance of litera­ture on this subject, but few actual books about it. The best of the American ones is by R. Hewitt (1940). BIRD MALARIA, The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore. P.C.C.

Garnham's (1966) MALARIA PARASITES AND OTHER HAEMO­SPORIDIA, Blackwell Scientific Publications, OxfordUK is still the best source for the malarias over­all, and includes various lists of spe­cies of mosquitoes known to attack wildlife.

My own AVIAN MALARIA IN THE ASIAN TROPICAL SUBREGION {1997), Springer-Verlag Singapore Pte Ltd includes detailed data on 12 of the species of avian malaria para-

sites plus 5 queried species, from 55,289 birds of 1132 species sampled by the US Army's Migra­tory Animals Pathological Survey for which I handled the plasmodia. This was reviewed in a recent issue of JAMCA. Some of the bird species concerned are now extinct - this survey began in the early 1960s, and while heavy destruction of for­ests in the area surveyed (which stretched from eastern I ran to Japan) was probably largely respon­sible for this, avian malaria very pos­sibly contributed to the final extinc­tion of heavily depleted populations.

Mention of this subject would have increased the force of the Jensen/Novak argument

r Marshall Laird 193 Wharawhara Road -.~ RD2 -KATIKATI 3063 · :<. ~

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.,

Fall 1999 33

continued from page 19 agreement that would allow the bill to move forward. At this point, I must say that the original bill had become so emascu­lated that I seriously considered throwing in the towel. In fact I did, but I missed the ring!

The 1995 session of the legislature ended January 20,1996 and with it the the life of the bill. The Bill is prefiled as S-560 for the new legislature on the same day. This meant another session of the Legislature, two more years of waiting? Frus­trations were rising among the Commissioners at the MCMEC.

On February 5, 1996 MCMEC passed another resolution urging passage of the legislation. Senator Bennett assured us that once we resolved our differences with the NJEF he saw no reason why the bill wouldn't move on a fast track.

Finally, on May 18, 1996 Dr. Schulze and I agreed in prin­ciple with the NJEF to a watered down bill, which is better than none.

Stuff happens! On May 23, 1996 the Senate Health Committee unanimously approves the Bill.

July 25, 1996 Dr. Schulze and I testify before the New Jersey State Pesticide Control Council and they unanimously endorse passage. The full Senate also passes the bill unani­mously later that day. Assembly passage of S-560 doesn't take place until February 20, 1997.

April 1, 1997 Senator Bennett advises me that Governor Christine Todd Whitman had signed S-560 into law. My first thought was that this was an April fool's joke. This legislation, while significant to us, was signed without comment or fan­fare. The law is ch 52 PL 1997 New Jersey Statutes 26:2P-7.

NEW JERSEY STATUTES ANNOTATED

TITLE 26. HEALTH AND VITAL STATISTICS

CHAPTER 2P. LYME DISEASE

26:2P-7. Designation of agency to conduct tick manage­ment activities

The Board of Chosen Freeholders of a county may desig­nate any county mosquito commission or other agency or any combination thereof to provide surveillance, education, training and recommendations on integrated pest management for the management of Lyme disease or other tick-borne disease vec­tors.

In the event of a public health necessity, the designated commission or agency may conduct other tick management activities in accordance with tick management protocols established by the Department of Health and Senior Services.

"" · . •Martin S. Chomsky, M~H, Monmouth County ·Mosquito Extermination Commission Eatontown, NJ, o1724 ' . . . . _

email: mchomsky@shore.co.moriniouth.nj.us

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