OFF PAGE ONE
Saturday, July 21, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 9A
Mosquito control is a constant fight
Crew focuses
on killing larvae
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Responding to the sound
of chopper blades, the five
men looked toward the sun
and the silhouette of small
helicopter heading their
way.
The order of the day, as
it is almost every summer
day for them, was mosquito
control.
Four of the men —
Andrew Ross, Dalton
Hughes, Mark Wilkerson
and Rylie Smith — work
as mosquito control tech-
nicians for the West Uma-
tilla Mosquito Control Dis-
trict, based in Hermiston.
The other, Dan Long, is an
employee of South County
Helicopter.
The helicopter landed
next to a cone-shaped
bucket to be hooked to the
chopper’s belly by a trio
of cables. In the bed of a
nearby pickup truck, bags of
VectoBac sat ready for load-
ing into the bucket.
The helicopter would
spray nearby water bodies
to kill developing mosquito
larvae.
Wearing dust masks, they
hauled 10 of the bags to the
bucket and dumped them
in. Pilot Cliff Hoeft took
off and flew a short way
to the Power City Wildlife
Area, where he made a pass,
releasing his load of granu-
lar larvicide. Before day’s
end, Hoeft would treat water
bodies in multiple locations,
including Cold Springs,
Stanfield/Echo Meadows
and the Irrigon Wildlife
Area.
Combating mosquitoes
by air is only one method.
More often, the attack is by
ground.
These men spend many
of their workdays trudg-
ing through swampy areas
in hip waders or riding
four-wheelers to spray with
the aid of backpack hoppers.
It’s hot, humid work.
“We get up at 5 a.m. and
get to work early to beat the
heat,” Ross said.
Thwarting
West
Nile virus is one of the
WUMCD’s aims, said Ross,
the crew’s field supervisor.
The crew detected the mos-
quito-borne virus in three
samples collected along
the south bank of the Cold
Springs Reservoir earlier
this summer.
The weapon of choice
at the moment is a granu-
lar formulation of a bacteria
called Bacillus thuringien-
sis, or Bti.
“It’s a naturally occur-
ring bacteria found in the
soil,” Ross said. “The mos-
quitoes ingest it and it crys-
talizes in their gut.”
The mosquitoes stop eat-
ing and eventually die.
Some could say such
attempts to crack down on
the millions of mosquitoes
in the area is like trying to
empty the ocean a bucket
at a time. Ross has heard
this before but says target-
ing the worst areas keeps
them at bay. He recalls con-
versations with old-timers
from the area who remem-
ber mosquitoes making their
lives miserable in years past.
“They talk about going
to a football game and being
covered by them,” Ross
said.
Randy Gerard, manager
of the mosquito control dis-
trict, said the district has
identified 13 different spe-
cies over the years. He said
surveillance is a huge part of
what the district does.
“No spraying of any kind
is done without surveil-
lance,” Gerard said. “There
are roughly 600 sites that I
know of.”
Workers trap adult mos-
quitoes to identify species
and gauge how well they are
doing. They test for West
Nile. Most of their focus,
however, is on the larvae.
With less hatching, there’s
less chance of disease
spreading.
“The whole goal is to
control mosquitoes from
hatching out of the water,”
Gerard said. “It’s a constant
fight.”
____________
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0810.
MOSQUITO: Species have been around over 100 million years
Continued from 1A
Snakes kill 50,000. Humans
murder around 425,000.
The mosquito stood alone
in its lethality.
“About 725,000 deaths a
year can be attributed to mos-
quitoes worldwide,” McK-
eon said.
The mosquitoes transmit-
ting all those viruses and dis-
eases aren’t found only in dis-
tant Africa or South America,
McKeon said. They already
live right here in the United
States.
“There are 3,500 dif-
ferent species of mosqui-
toes,” McKeon said. “They
span all seven continents.
There are mosquitoes that
live in Antarctica. They are
everywhere.”
She ticked off the names
of the three main types of
mosquitoes on the planet —
Culex, Aedes and Anoph-
eles — and said all reside
here. The Culex is brown
and bland — the unshowy,
girl-next-door
mosquito.
Aedes mosquitoes, such as
the Asian tiger mosquito,
are black with white stripes.
The Anopheles, the type that
transmits malaria, is black
and sleek with knee-high
white stockings.
So why isn’t the U.S.
swamped by deadly mosqui-
to-borne diseases?
“What’s really hold-
ing back the diseases is that
pathogens need a certain tem-
perature to transmit,” McK-
eon said.
She said mosquitoes can
go full-throttle in places
where the temperature is
84 degrees and higher year-
A ground crew at the West Umatilla Mosquito Control
District fills a aerial application bucket system with the
larvicide VectoBac G on Thursday in Hermiston.
Staff photos by E.J. Harris
A helicopter is used to disperse the larvicide VectoBac G over wetlands in the Power
City Wildlife Area to control mosquito populations on Thursday north of Hermiston.
The helicopter is contracted by the West Umatilla Mosquito Control District.
round like the tropics. As long
as we continue to have sea-
sons, mosquitoes will die off
and new uninfected batches
will emerge, she said. But if
we become like the tropics,
then there will be no die-off.
“Lets flash forward 60
years from now,” McKeon
said. “If our climate estimates
go as predicted. By 2080, it’ll
be 84 degrees almost year-
round (in much of the U.S).
This will be the new tropics.
Oregon will have pockets.”
Oddly, malaria has visited
us before. McKeon flashed
on the screen a photo of the
Centers for Disease Control
in Atlanta.
“This was not built to
be the CDC,” she said. “It
was built (in 1942) to be the
Office of Malaria Control.”
The office was placed in
Atlanta rather than Wash-
ington, D.C., because the
South had the most malaria
problems. The National
Malaria Eradication Program
sprayed, drained mosquito
breeding sites and used other
methods to eliminate malaria
from the country by 1949.
It will likely return as
global temperatures rise.
Ticks are already spread-
ing farther north and McK-
eon attributes that to longer,
warmer springs that lengthen
summer, giving ticks an
increased chance of survival
going into winter. Rocky
Mountain spotted fever,
which is transmitted by cer-
tain ticks, was diagnosed this
summer in Morrow County.
McKeon isn’t all gloom
and doom. She hopes man-
kind will find a way to com-
bat climate change. There are
ways to control mosquitoes
and the arsenal is growing.
One promising method
is the sterile insect tech-
nique. The idea is to release
irradiated male mosquitoes.
After mating with them, the
females lay sterile eggs. It
takes a lot of energy for mos-
quitoes to mate and they have
to wait a month to build up
enough energy for another
attempt. The population
slowly decreases.
McKeon doesn’t believe
mosquitoes should be totally
obliterated from the face
of the earth, even if it was
possible.
“Do we really want to
eradicate them?” she asked.
“They are an integral part
of several ecological food
chains. What about the birds
and fish that feed on them?
We would be taking away a
major source of protein for
them.”
But the point is moot.
“Mosquitoes have always
been around,” McKeon said.
“Mosquitoes are older than
we are. They’ve been around
over 100 million years. The
numbers are rising. We hav-
en’t controlled them and we
haven’t figured out how to
live in harmony with them
just yet.”
____________
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0810.
Thank you to
Hermiston High School’s
Project Graduation
Celebration
Sponsors & Donors
60 Minute Photo
Elmer’s Irrigation
Park Terrace Townhouses
A.S.A.P Flying Service, Inc.
Girth Dog, LLC
Pioneer Title Insurance Co.
Advanced Pediatric
Dentistry
Gordon’s Electric, Inc.
Rock, Inc.
HB Boys - Burger King
Shelco
Aff ordable Family Eye Wear
Hendon Construction
Shellie Rysdam
AJ’s Printed Apparel
Hermiston Generating
Solid Waste Disposal
Anderson Hansell Attorneys Hermiston Herald
Ann and Dean Fialka
Hermiston School District
Sorbenots
Barak and Associates
Janna Coleman
Stratton Insurance Services
Barnett & Moro
Jason Bartman
Subway-Hermiston
Bellinger’s
Jenny Miller
Suds Yer Duds
Big River Golf Course
Karen Bounds
Tania Hoeft
BI-MART
Marlette Homes-Hermiston Walmart DC
Burns Mortuary
McLaughlin Landscaping
Wells Family
Calpine
Midway Tavern
Wheatland Insurance
Starvation Ridge Farms
T H I S IS M O RE T H A N A KIDNEY
A) This is the gift that allowed Cal Mitchell of Gresham,
Oregon to see his great-grandchildren being born. B) This
is freedom for him to tend to his garden and host family
Cindy and Jason Middleton Mr. Insulation
Community Bank
NW Farm Credit Services
barbeques. C) This is the chance for Cal to spend retirement
Devon Oil Co, Inc.
NW Metal Fabricators
generosity of a stranger whose donation saved Cal’s life.
Dynamic Computer
Consulting Inc.
O So Kleen
East Oregonian
with his beloved wife of over 50 years, Marva. D) This is the
Oregon Trail Veterinary
Clinic
... and to all the parents and other
individuals who donated time,
money and/or supplies to help make
our party a huge success we say,
“ THANK YOU!”
HHS Project Graduation Committee
& HHS Class of 2018
Register today to be an organ, eye and tissue
donor. Visit DonateLifeNW.org