Dear Editor,
In a recent telephone interview with Health Inspector attached to the New Amsterdam Town Council, Mr. Ackloo Ramsudh, concerning the mosquito invasion over the past weeks, he divulged some bits and pieces of information which might be of importance within the whole scenario of the problems being faced by New Amsterdamers and other Berbicians.

Many persons in New Amsterdam are of the view that the Town Council is not doing as much as it should in getting rid of the annoying blood-sucking insects which have been plaguing the town and surrounding areas for quite some time now.
Mr. Ramsudh acknowledged that Crab Island and the mud lot swamp-line which runs from the Strand area in the township are the main breathing grounds for the insects.
“They are breathing in the bush. The mud-lot is a swamp, from the Mental Hospital to Water Side to Stanleytown. There are mangrove swamps and trees which are ideal breathing grounds amidst thick dense vegetation. They hide and live and comfortably deposit eggs on the soil.
It gets more terrible with spring tide; the water comes up straight to Strand Road. Water is needed for eggs to hatch,” Ramsudh explained.
He opined that maybe if all of the mangrove trees and swamp are removed and replaced with concrete sea-defence, then maybe the mosquito infestation would be brought to zilch. But I interjected by saying that although he may be right, the government would not find that feasible at the moment.
The Health Inspector blamed persons living in the town who are not keeping their surroundings tidy.
He said that some persons are very negligent and this is resulting in giving the insects a place to breathe. “Even with fogging on a daily basis, the population of mosquitoes keep increasing; they are breathing at a tremendous rate”, he said.
“We intend to continue amidst resource problems; we are asking persons to donate fuel, insecticide is needed to assist with exercise.
Fogging should be continuous whether it is mosquito season or not”, he stated. He explained that to control the population all year round, it would be necessary to go in to swamp areas and spray from time to time. “It all boils down to resources available.”
Speaking on the story behind the infestation or the science behind the invasion, Mr. Ramsudh stated that there are different types of mosquitoes and those types will breathe in various kinds of water whether it is clean water, stagnant water or even in septic tanks.
“Regardless of what conditions, water is the perfect breeding ground” he said. He explained that cleaned drains will still breathe the blood-suckers. “When larva is in the water, it is very active. It attracts a predator (fishes). These fishes feed on the larvae. That, will, as a result kill the larvae and eggs. But if the water is stagnant, all of the oxygen content is gone and fishes cannot survive anymore due to garbage and pollution in the water,” he stated.
So therefore the mosquitoes will breed more abundantly.

Two fogging machines

The current fogging exercise in the town is being done on a daily basis with the use of two machines.
They start the exercise from about 4.30pm. Dieseline and malathion are mixed and used to create a smoke which repels the adult insects.
“The scent drives them away. We also use a smoke with a fog-like appearance with tiny droplets of insecticide in it, which will kill them”, he said. He stated that they are in need of donations for dieseline from members of the town and corporate entities.
He also urged the Ministry of Health to come on board to give assistance with the mosquito infestation, as they did a few years ago.
The Berbice Regional Health Authority, he stated, also donated some dieseline during this infestation.
The fogging starts from Tucber Park in the outskirts of the town, to create a certain effect with the wind, according to the Town Health Inspector. “We want to have the wind direction have a maximum effect and spray in such a way that it [the wind] will assist to take the tiny particles of insecticide and disperse them as much as possible”, he said.
Leon Jameson Suseran