<x-rich>Daily News 4/22/2000
<bold>City's Skeeter-Control Plan
Focus on baby pests,
early detection, public education
</bold>By LISA L. COLANGELO
Daily News Staff Writer
<<Picture>magine a New York summer without mosquitoes.
Nice idea. Not likely.
But if city officials have their way, New York's peskiest population
will be
slashed 90% to 95% this year.
That's the ambitious goal of the Health Department's mosquito-control
plan to
head off another outbreak of the deadly West Nile virus.
Workers will spend the next month dropping cork-size chunks of
larvicide down
the city's 130,000 catch basins.
Larvicide, which contains chemicals and natural bacteria, kills
mosquitoes
before they develop into adults. They come in briquettes, liquid, spray
or
granules.
The campaign moves to the city's parks in May, where larvicide might be
placed in ponds and other bodies of standing water.
Meanwhile, health inspectors will be on the lookout for other mosquito
breeding grounds on public and private property.
Health Commissioner Neal Cohen said the city's best efforts to wipe out
mosquitoes that transmit West Nile virus to humans will be unsuccessful
if
the public isn't involved.
"Even a cup of water sitting for a few days can be a breeding site for
mosquitoes," Cohen said.
Last year, the virus killed seven people and sickened dozens. City
officials
sanctioned aerial spraying of the pesticide malathion to contain the
outbreak.
The controversial move raised the ire of environmentalists and
residents who
said the cure made more people sick than the virus.
The Giuliani administration is trying to counter the backlash with
strong
emphasis on early detection and has pledged not to use malathion while
the
Environmental Protection Agency reviews it.
The EPA is trying to determine whether the pesticide causes cancer and
other
heath risks in humans.
Cohen said larvicide compounds pose no health risk to people, since
humans
aren't exposed to catch-basin water.
One chunk of larvicide can work for up to 150 days.
Cohen recently outlined elements of the department's surveillance and
control
plan:
A public-education campaign including advertisements, fact sheets in 11
languages, television and radio commercials as well as an activity book
for
children;
Trapping mosquitoes at 75 sites throughout the city and testing them
for
traces of the virus;
Using 15 or 16 flocks of chickens at area poultry markets as
"sentinels" to
determine if they have been bitten by infected mosquitoes;
Trapping wild birds weekly to check for traces of the virus.
"This is all to give us some early warning sign whether the virus is
reappearing, even in the face of no reports of any human cases," Cohen
said.
The city also is depending on millions of tiny Gambusia affinis ÷ the
larvae-eating Western mosquitofish ÷ to prevent mosquito breeding in
wastewater-treatment plants.
The fish, which already exist at the plants, reproduce every 28 days,
and can
consume up to 230 larvae in an hour, Cohen said.
Pesticide spraying, however, still remains part of the city's plan if
there
is an outbreak.
If necessary, Cohen said, the city will use the pesticides Scourge
(resmetrin), Anvil (sumethrin) and Agrevo Permanone (permethrin). But
not
malathion.
"I think that's major news," said Laura Haight, senior environmental
association at the New York Public Interest Research Group. "There is a
lot
of good stuff in the plan. However, none of the pesticides they are
talking
about using for mosquito control is safe."
It was unclear, however, what kind of discovery would trigger the city
to
spray.
"We're not here to wait for human beings to be affected by West Nile
virus,"
Cohen said Wednesday. "We're here to take a very proactive step toward
reducing the likelihood of an outbreak, so if we see that mosquitoes
are
carrying West Nile virus, we are going to move forward and we'll use
pesticides in a very responsible way, in a very targeted way."
Original Publication Date: 04/23/2000
Daily News 4/22/2000
Larvae-Killers Loosed on Bugs
<<Picture>he New York City Health Department is spreading larvicide in
catch
basins to control the mosquito population.
Some facts on the larvicides the city is using:
Altosid (Methoprene) ÷ used for many years as a pesticide in producing
foods
like meat, milk, eggs, mushrooms, peanuts, rice and cereals.
It mimics an insect growth hormone and prevents larvae from developing
into
adult mosquitoes.
Research has shown that Altosid is not harmful to humans, but direct
contact
can cause mild eye and skin irritation.
Vectolex (Bacillus sphaericus) ÷ contains a naturally occurring
bacteria
found in soil.
The bacteria damages the gut of the mosquito larvae when they eat it.
It also can cause mild eye and skin irritation. Children and pets
should stay
away from small ponds and other places treated with Vectolex.
Vectobac (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) ÷ used since the 1950s
for
insect control, particularly for mosquitoes, black flies and fungus
gnats.
It contains a naturally occurring bacteria found in soil.
The bacteria damages the gut of the mosquito larvae when they eat it.
Direct contact can cause mild eye and skin irritation.
Original Publication Date: 04/23/2000
<<Picture>
<<Picture: Related Stories>
<<Picture>City's Skeeter-Control Plan (04/23/2000)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lois Levitan, PhD Program Leader
Environmental Risk Analysis Program
Center for the Environment
213 Rice Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York USA 14853
Phone: (607) 255-4765 Fax: (607) 255-0238
Email: LCL3@cornell.edu
Program Email: envrisk@cornell.edu
http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/risk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Received on Sun Apr 23 09:29:50 2000
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