By EDWARD HUSAR
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
The city of Quincy is getting ready to launch its annual war against mosquitoes.
The first battle will be waged next week when city crews begin spraying in every neighborhood, which will take 3 to 3 1/2 days.
Spraying will take place between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. Monday through Friday as conditions allow. That's the time of day mosquitoes are most active, and it's necessary that the chemical directly contacts the insects.
Spraying will then be repeated periodically until the end of September or until cold weather renders mosquitoes no longer a nuisance.
Mike Beebe, director of the Central Services Department, said mosquitoes just started appearing in some parts of town, so he hopes to attack them early with a special chemical mist that kills mosquitos but doesn't hurt people.
"The chemical company we use says it's less toxic than aspirin," Beebe said.
Beebe budgets about $30,000 a year for mosquito abatement. Last year, the Central Services Department sprayed the entire city nine times during the spring, summer and fall, Beebe said. He expects to employ a similar game plan this year.
After the first round of spraying, Beebe will watch the weather before launching a second assault.
If a heavy rain is followed by a period of warm weather, "you can pretty much expect there's going to be a new hatch" within a matter of days, Beebe said. So more spraying will be scheduled.
Standing water serves as a breeding ground for mosquitoes. "And once that water heats up, that's what kind of incubates the eggs that mosquitoes lay," Beebe said.
This is one reason Beebe urges Quincy residents to remove any standing water in their yards -- to help eliminate places where mosquitoes can reproduce.
Beebe also will be keeping watch on low-lying areas along Quincy's riverfront, where floodwater is starting to recede. "All the low-lying areas will have water standing in them," he said. "That's going to be a prime breeding ground for mosquitoes."
Beebe's crews will spray problem areas where mosquitoes breed. In addition, the department will use larvicide pellets to prevent mosquito eggs from hatching in catch basins under city streets.
"It kills them before they even have a chance to fly out," he said.
Beebe says the pellets are typically used in June and August when the threat of West Nile virus is at its peak.
Early-season mosquitos, such as those coming out now, are not as worrisome to health officials as the "northern house mosquito," which commonly carries the West Nile virus. That species tends to build its population when summer is at its warmest.
West Nile is a form of encephalitis -- an infection of the brain caused by virus or bacteria, including viruses passed along by mosquitoes.
Last year, Illinois had 101 human cases of West Nile disease, including four fatalities. The only human case in this part of the state was in Pike County, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The Missouri Department of Health and Human Services says 77 human cases of West Nile virus were reported in Missouri in 2007, with five fatalities. The only human case in Northeast Missouri was a non-fatal case involving a 50-year-old woman in Scotland County.
-- ehusar@whig.com/221-3378
