Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Aerial Spraying For Mosquitoes Planned

An aerial spray operation has been scheduled this week for over 50,000 acres within Dare County to help reduce the number of mosquitoes resulting from flooding caused by Hurricane Irene. The aerial application will begin Thursday evening, September 8 at approximately 6:30pm and continue until about 2:00am, weather permitting. September 9th and 10th will be back up days in case of bad weather. The aerial application may take 2 days to complete. Dibrom® is the pesticide being applied at the rate of 0.75 fluid ounces per acre.

The aerial spray operation is being conducted in response to surveillance findings that indicate greatly increased mosquito populations and also due to the limited road accessibility in portions of the County.

Although a person's chances of experiencing any health effects from spraying are very low, the Dare County Department of Public Health offers the following steps to reduce exposure to pesticides during spraying:

• Remain indoors when pesticides are sprayed in your immediate area.
• Close windows and doors before spraying begins.
• Wash homegrown fruits and vegetables before eating.
• Should you feel you are experiencing health effects from spraying, please consult your doctor.

For more information, please contact Dare County Department of Public Health at 252-475-5003 or Dare County Public Works at 252-475-5880.

Melody C. Clopton, SPHR
Management Assistant

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Rick, great to see you and visit NHC again! You weren't kidding about those mosquitoes!!! Worse than anything we'd ever seen up here (or down there). Fortunately, they weren't a problem where we were staying, but we ran into 'em in our travels a few times last week. When they surrounded my car, I thought they might pick it up! Won't stop us, though, we'll be back next year...:-)