On Mosquitoes and Municipal Elections



Any resident of Maplewood is likely to subconsciously itch at the mention of mosquitoes. They are an ever-present unwanted guest in our backyards in summer, and anyone in Maplewood will tell you that we seem to have it worse than most other areas in Saint Louis. Many in Maplewood will also itch at the mention of municipal elections, but unfortunately for those folks, that’s just what I’m writing about today: the intersection of tomorrow’s municipal election and mosquito abatement policy.

Personally, I find this a fascinating topic of discussion. I am a biologist at Millipore Sigma and did undergraduate research work on avian malaria (a mosquito borne disease) during my time at UMSL.

I am also the president of the Hadley Township Democrats (Hadley Township encompasses all of Maplewood, and parts of Shrewsbury, Richmond Heights, Clayton and University City) and municipal government/policy and electoral politics are some of my favorite hobbies, so this scratches several of my nerdy itches (pun intended).
Jason Goldkamp has been running for Maplewood city council, partially on a platform of “tackling the mosquito epidemic”. It is of note that he uses the word ‘epidemic’, as his plan as explained on his campaign facebook page actually puts the public health of Maplewood at risk, opening the door to an actual epidemic of mosquito borne disease.

From Goldkamp’s facebook page:

“I’ve received inquiries on how I would plan to eradicate mosquitos as mentioned in my campaign literature. It would consist of two things, education and a reallocation of our current funding for mosquito abatement.

In regards to education you can read in the link how they combated mosquitoes during the building of the Panama Canal. It mostly consists of two things: eliminating or treating stagnant water. If we can educate citizens on how mosquitoes can breed in just the smallest amount of stagnant water and how to eliminate or treat that water it would go very far in putting a dent in the mosquito population

In regard to reallocating funds, Maplewood currently pays St. Louis County ~$3k to spray chemicals in the air out of the back of a truck. This accomplishes very little in comparison to treating standing water. I would ask the council to reallocate that money to pay for mosquito dunks for residents to use in standing water that can not be abated on their properties. Mosquito dunks are a chemical free way to kill mosquito larvae utilizing a bacteria that is only harmful to mosquito larvae and is pet, bird, and child safe.”

Goldkamp is very correct in stating that the most important thing that one can do to control mosquitoes is to eliminate and treat standing water. He is very wrong about the role of St. Louis County, and the idea that cancelling a contract with the County Department of Public health and then buying approximately $3000.00 worth of Bti mosquito dunks would be anything but a disaster.

Bti dunks (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) are a great tool for mosquito control and I use them myself. I have rain barrels connected to my gutters to collect water for general garden use, and without Bti dunks they would be infested with mosquito larvae. Let’s do some math though:

As of the 2010 census, there are 4269 households in Maplewood. Bti dunks are approximately $1.00 a piece–direct from the manufacturer at wholesale price–and can treat standing water for 30 days. By diverting the $3000.00 contract with the County Department of Public Health (which does much more than “spray chemicals off the back of a truck”, more on that in a bit) you are able to purchase enough mosquito dunks to supply 70.3% of households for 30 days. (3000/4269 = 0.703)

Want to supply people with mosquito dunks for a full mosquito season ranging from April to October—7 months? 
Congratulations to a lucky 10% of Maplewood households, you’re covered. (3000/7 = 428.57 which is 10% of 4269)

I contacted the Saint Louis County Department of Public Health for more information about what Maplewood gets for the approximately $3000.00 a year contract we have.

James Sayers, supervisor of the county Vector Control Program, explains below:

“The City of Maplewood does currently contract with County DPH Vector Control for services.  Those services include surveillance (trapping and identification of adult mosquitoes), testing adult Culex mosquitoes for the presence of arboviral diseases such as West Nile Virus, larval mosquito control (treating standing water), adult mosquito control (truck mounted ULV and Barrier spraying), as well as rodent abatement in public areas. Our program is a full “Integrated Pest Management Program” or IPM. In short, that means that our mosquito abatement program is entirely dictated by our surveillance efforts.

As we are a part of the Department of Public Health, we focus our efforts on controlling the particular types of mosquito that can spread disease to humans. The majority of our efforts focus on controlling mosquito larva before they emerge as adult mosquitoes. This includes treating storm sewers, catch basins, creeks, ditches, etc. in public areas and easements. Areas where our traps indicate excessive numbers of mosquitoes with the potential to transmit disease, and more importantly, where those mosquitoes have tested positive in our lab for disease, are where we focus our spray efforts.

That being said, while controlling the mosquitoes that can make you sick, we do knock down some of what we consider “nuisance” mosquitoes.  One of our major nuisance mosquitoes is Aedes albopictus, the Asian Tiger Mosquito.  Since these particular mosquitoes prefer to breed in small containers of standing water such as buckets, flower pots, clogged gutters, etc., they are very prevalent in more densely populated areas such as Maplewood. Due to the habits of this particular mosquito, they are very difficult for us to control since oftentimes they emerge from water sources located on private property and rest in backyards where they await a blood meal. We encourage residents that are having issues with mosquitoes to contact us. Regarding nuisance mosquitoes, we are happy to provide an inspection at no cost and will attempt to determine what kind of mosquito is causing the issue, where they may be coming from, and how best to control them. If we find sources on public property that we were unaware of, we will add them to the Maplewood route to be monitored and treated monthly, though out the season. We are happy to speak at neighborhood associations, town hall meetings, etc., about what our program can do for residents, as well as educate residents on control and exclusion methods to help alleviate mosquitoes on their property.”

I hope this has been informative of how neighbors can work together to lessen our mosquito population, and of how we should be wary of people offering magic bullet solutions to complex problems. I am in contact with the city and with James Sayers of Saint Louis County Department of Public about bringing a public informational meeting to Maplewood in the coming weeks, and I encourage anyone with mosquito issues to contact James at [email protected] and take him up on his offer of free inspection and consultation. I promise you won’t be bugging him. (yes, also intended).

Jon-Erik Hansen submitted this letter to 40 South News for publication.