BENTON COUNTY, Wash. – Benton County Mosquito Control is stepping up efforts to manage mosquito populations as the mosquito abatement season begins. The organization aims to protect the public by keeping mosquito numbers at a manageable level.
Kevin Shoemaker, assistant manager at BCMC, emphasized the importance of their work.
“So we’re trying to reduce those mosquito populations. You’re never going to eliminate mosquitoes, and that’s not our goal,” Shoemaker said. “But we do want to keep them to a manageable level. And then we’re also monitoring for the presence of mosquito-borne illnesses like West Nile virus.”
In Benton County and parts of Yakima County, planes and drones are used to disperse pesticides.
Shoemaker said that the products used by BCMC are approved by the EPA and only target mosquitoes. They are safe for use in bodies of water near people and animals.
“It’s a dry, granular product. It’s not going to drift off-site. The planes might fly over residential areas to line up on passes, but we’re not treating any residential areas,” Shoemaker said.
The program focuses on targeting mosquitoes during their early life stages in the water before they become adults. BCMC checks various water sites for mosquito larvae and compares the numbers to past years.
“The majority of our program, 85 to 90%, is a larviciding program,” Shoemaker said. “So we’re really trying to focus on finding the mosquitoes when they’re in the water and then treating them when they’re in the water, because we get better control. And we can also go back and see how well our control measures did.”
Shoemaker said community members can submit mosquito population concerns to BCMC.
For more information about mosquito management, visit their website.
