Posted on: Monday, October 11, 2004

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i's recent close call with the West Nile virus and a dengue fever outbreak a couple years ago — as well as the avian malaria threat to birds — has state officials focusing on ways to control the disease carriers: mosquitoes.

Public education is at the top of the list. The state's Office of Environmental Quality Control's biweekly Environmental Notice suggests mosquito-proofing homes by taking a close look at your back yard.

Drain standing water in which mosquito larvae can thrive. That may mean tracking down buckets or wheelbarrows that may have collected puddles of water in them and pouring the water out of water-storing plants like bromeliads.

Water dishes for pets should be refilled or washed out regularly, or mosquitoes will breed in them. If you have a backyard lily pond, get some mosquito-eating fish for it, since they'll dine on the larvae.

A state Department of Health Web site warns to look for any kind of container that might hold water — even an old tire. For details check www.state.hi.us/doh/eh.

At your house, fix the screens. Make sure screen doors close well and that window screens are secure and complete.

But those are just a few of the things that can be done. The American Mosquito Control Association at www.mosquito.org says the best defense is multipronged.

"Effective mosquito management requires integrating a variety of available control strategies, i.e. surveillance, source reduction, biological control methods, traps, environmentally friendly larvicides, and, when necessary, application of public health adulticides, into a comprehensive program that exploits known mosquito vulnerabilities," the organization said.

Larvicides kill larvae, and adulticides kill adult mosquitoes — that's what Department of Health vector control workers sprayed around Kahului Airport while awaiting word on a possible case of West Nile virus in a bird caught by the runway. (Fortunately, the word was negative.)

Mosquito traps are available commercially, and different types have different success rates, the association said. Mosquito punks and citronella oil products can be useful, but are best in windless conditions.

There are various natural and non-natural techniques for killing adults and larval mosquitoes, but some of them can be dangerous themselves. A good resource is an Environmental Protection Agency site that has information and links for more resources: www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/pesticides4mosquitos.htm.

If you have a question or concern about the Hawaiian environment, drop a note to Jan TenBruggencate at P.O. Box 524, Lihu'e, HI 96766, e-mail jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or call (808) 245-3074.