Rain foils Baker’s mosquito hunters

With rain comes pools of water.

With pools of water come mosquitoes.

This year there’s a lot of both.

“It’s a mess,” Jim Lunders said.

He manages the Baker Valley Vector Control District.

“This is the most difficult year since I’ve been here,” Lunders said.

He was hired in April 2001 to run the 200,000-acre Vector Control District, which includes Baker, Keating and Bowen valleys.

The weather is causing him problems though.

“The biggest problem is spraying effectively with the wind and rain,” Lunders said on Monday.

 “With the flooding it has taken us five days to do what should have taken one.”

To keep down the mosquito population, Lunders and his crew use different types of mosquito-killing solvents to kill the larvae before they can mature into adult mosquitoes.

One, known as BTI (bacillus-thuringiensis-israelenis), is a bacteria that, when eaten by the larvae, destroys the larvae cells, paralyzing them and killing them off.

Another is Altosid, a growth regulator used in floodwater.

“It keeps them from becoming adults; basically drowns them before they can mature,” he said.

Mosquitoes need standing water to hatch their larvae.

“With all the rain, people need to look around their yard and deal with rainfall in buckets, tires and wheelbarrows,” Lunders said.

These pools of water, no matter how small, can be an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes.

“One quick way to take them out is to empty the bucket of water. Then, no more mosquitoes,” he said.

Lunders said the majority of the local mosquito population comes from water used to irrigate crops and pastures.

But the insects will lay their eggs around any water source, such as old tires and buckets that have accumulated rain.

He said it’s still too early to tell if mosquitoes will be a large problem this year; it depends on the weather.

How long the larvae take to become bloodthirsty (in the case of the females; the males don’t bite) adult mosquitoes requires several factors, most notably the temperature.

“When it’s cooler it takes longer for the larvae to mature. If it goes straight to being hot, it’s gonna be pretty bad,” he said.

Mosquitoes can have a wide range of effects on people.

Some types of mosquitoes can carry diseases such as the West Nile virus, which began showing up in Oregon during the 2006 season.

Others can be a general annoyance with workers in the field.

“Even though they aren’t spreading diseases, employers may not get as much out of their workers because of bites,” Lunders said.

Mosquitoes also can affect tourism.

“No one will stay or come back to a place where they are getting bit,” Lunders said.

Mosquitoes bred in floodwater are less likely to carry diseases, but they tend to be more aggressive and are active during most of the day.

Bites from these insects, while not dangerous, can cause secondary infections.

Mosquitoes common to Baker County are most active during the morning and evening hours.

“There will be a longer active period during overcast and high humidity,” Lunders said.

Some general precautions he suggested are wearing long sleeve shirts and pants,  and properly using insect repellent.

“Whenever you see my employees they are always in long sleeves and pants,” Lunders said.

Repellents that have proven to be most effective contain the active ingredient DEET.

“The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta) is saying that oil of lemon eucalyptus is effective, and any repellent with the main active ingredient DEET works well,” Lunders said.

Oil of lemon eucalyptus is a plant-based repellent. It can be found in insect repellents such as Repel.

DEET is the active ingredient in most insect repellent worldwide, including OFF!, and it has been an industry standard for more than 50 years.

“I can’t stress enough that it is going to be a tough year,” Lunders said.