Mosquito
invasion of New Amsterdam
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
Wednesday,
March 31, 2010
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Mosquito
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Mosquito
plague in Regions 5, 6
Over the past two weeks, the residents of
Regions 5 and 6 have been plagued with an
invasion of mosquitoes.