Mosquito Abatement Issues

Pesticide use under legal review may stall seasonal abatement
April 23, 2009 11:27:00 PM
By Howard Yune/Appeal-Democrat
Pest-control agencies in the Mid-Valley are prepared to roll out their spray trucks and airplanes next month to attack mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus. But whether they can do so rests with a dispute over a pesticide law being played out in federal court.

Yuba, Sutter and Butte counties are tracking the outcome of a case that will decide whether they need federal permits to use insecticides over bodies of water. Pest control authorities say a demand for permits could stall this summer’s mosquito fighting effort just as insect populations grow and might cause more residents to contract the damaging, occasionally lethal West Nile disease.

“If we’re not allowed to spray, then people here are going to be in trouble,” said Ronald McBride, manager of the Sutter-Yuba Mosquito & Vector Control District.

Colusa Mosquito Abatement District officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Ground and air pesticide campaigns are scheduled to begin sometime in May depending on weather conditions, said directors of the Sutter-Yuba and Butte County mosquito districts. The projects are expect to last as late as early November.

However, a battle over permits for pest-killing chemicals throws that schedule in doubt.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruled in 2007 that chemicals sprayed over natural water bodies against insects, rodents and fungi

required no permit from the agency. But a coalition of farming and environmental groups appealed the rule and, on Jan. 7, convinced a three-judge panel for the federal appeals court in Cincinnati, Ohio, to void the exemption.

The EPA has filed for the full 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the case. No date has been announced.

The prospect of a halt to spraying comes as sources of stagnant water multiply and provide mosquitoes with more places to breed, said Matt Ball, director of the Butte County Mosquito and Vector Control District. The agency began an air survey of standing water April 13 and has mapped at least 300 sources — about 80 percent of them abandoned swimming pools, a growing trend as more California houses fall into foreclosure and disrepair.

The region’s plentiful rice fields give the insect larvae even bigger territory to develop, comprising 90 percent of mosquitoes’ breeding grounds in Yuba-Sutter.

Even the increasing purchases of foreclosed homes — as much as 75 percent of home sales in some California counties — may do little to check the problem if houses remain empty and their pools untended.

“My worry is these (buyers) are mostly investors, people buying second or third homes for extra (rental) income,” Ball said Thursday. “I’m worried that these homes may still remain vacant.”

ABOUT WEST NILE VIRUS

WHAT: The West Nile virus is normally carried by mosquitoes, whose bites spread the virus to birds, humans, horses and other animals.

SYMPTOMS: 80 percent of people bitten by infected mosquitoes show no symptoms, while most of the rest suffer from a relatively mild flu-like condition. In less than 1 percent of cases, victims suffer fevers, headaches, disorientation, tremors and convulsions. The disease can cause paralysis and occasionally death.

Children, seniors and those with weakened immune systems run the highest risk of developing a severe form of the disease. No vaccine against West Nile is yet available for humans, though one exists to protect horses.

For more information:

California Department of Public Health: www.westnile.ca.gov

Sutter-Yuba Mosquito & Vector Control District: 674-5456 or www.sutter-yubamvcd.org

Colusa Mosquito Abatement District: 458-4966

Butte County Mosquito and Vector Control District: 533-6038 or www.bcmvcd.com

Source: California Department of Public Health