Mosquito population in Calcasieu Parish at 15-year low
Published 8:01 pm Monday, May 13, 2013
Mosquito populations in Calcasieu Parish are lower now than they have been in the last 15 years, Scott Willis, the parish’s mosquito control director, said Monday.
“It’s a completely different kind of spring,” he said. “Every now and then you get a year like that. The cooler temperatures have caused mosquito populations to develop slower.”
Willis said the office collected 6,000 mosquitoes last month using more than 30 traps located throughout the parish. He said they collected 66,000 mosquitoes the same time last year with the traps in the same location.
Willis said the office is monitoring how the rainfall from last weekend, along with warmer temperatures, will affect mosquito populations.
“Even though we’ve had a lot of water, it’s a slow start,” he said. “But maybe toward this weekend, we are anticipating the possibility of the first real mosquito outbreak. But we don’t know what it will be.”
Willis said other parishes like Cameron and East Baton Rouge are also reporting lower than average mosquito populations.
If mosquito populations rise, Willis said the department has its airplanes and trucks ready to spray are areas within the parish.
