Harrison County team bites into mosquito population

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - It’s an insect that begins to bug us this time of year: mosquitoes.

With all the rain we had over the weekend and warmer temperatures, that means mosquitoes are laying their eggs in ditches, culverts and in standing water areas all over Harrison County and around our homes.

“When you police your own area, you really help control the mosquito population,” said Gene Fayard with the county’s Mosquito Control team. “Go around your house, look for areas of standing water...buckets, dog bowls...those are going to be where mosquitoes breed. People don’t realize it, but a lot of times they’re breeding their own mosquitoes. We’re doing the main ditches and culverts around the county, but if they could do their own property, it helps out a lot.”

As far as the other areas are concerned, they spray and use their seven fog trucks. They also have a new trap system.

“We have two grab-it traps. We use stinky water with fish emulsions at the bottom. They go in there to lay their eggs, and in one they get sucked up through the tube, through the fan into a net,” Fayard said. “In the other one, we put in the same water. It sucks them up, but they don’t go through the fan, they go into a net. The box is sealed, so it creates a vacuum.”

This way, they can identify the types of mosquitoes and send them off to the state lab to see if they’re the type of insects that carry diseases like West Nile.

“This freshwater doesn’t have a lot of eggs yet. They’ll start laying those soon, and in about two weeks, they’ll be mosquitoes.”

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