The Darke County General Health District is pleased to have received the Mosquito Control Grant through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Along with the Health Department, the City of Greenville and the Villages of Wayne Lakes, Versailles, and Osgood all received funding. The total funding received for Darke County is $69,400.
The purpose of this grant is to provide funding to local health departments and other government agencies to use for mosquito control measures in a collective statewide effort to diminish the potential for mosquito borne viruses such as Zika and West Nile. Mosquito control measures approved within the scope of this grant includes mosquito surveillance, larval control, adult mosquito control, community outreach, and mosquito breeding source reduction.
The Mosquito Control Grant will help the Darke County General Health District to employ an integrated mosquito management system that will help to reduce the number of disease carrying and pest mosquitoes. To do this, an intern has been hired to assist with the majority of this program. Environmental Health Mosquito Control Intern, Jessalyn Besecker, stated that “Mosquito surveillance methods will be used to determine the size of mosquito populations in Darke County, as well as which species are present and if the mosquitoes collected are disease carriers.” These surveillance measures will determine whether or not spraying to kill adult mosquitoes or dunks (goes in standing water to kill mosquito larva) will be necessary.
As part of this grant, the Darke County General Health District is reaching out to other villages and townships to conduct surveillance all over the County. Other villages helping with surveillance are Arcanum, Ansonia, Gettysburg, Bradford, and Rossburg. The Darke County General Health District will be using Geographic Information System (GIS) to help determine mosquito “hot spots” where pesticides or traps can be utilized. Plans to educate the public on ways to reduce mosquito habitats, as well as the dangers of mosquito borne viruses, are currently underway. The Darke County General Health District feels that receiving this grant is a great way to begin building a successful mosquito control program.
For more information on our mosquito surveillance and trapping, please visit the Darke County General Health District’s Facebook page or contact us at 937-548-4196.
