Mosquito Control For Storm Drains Starts In Rockland

NEW CITY, NY — Rockland County officials announced the start of annual mosquito treatment for catch basins and storm drains begins Monday. Its purpose is to prevent mosquitoes from breeding in standing water inside them.

The work will be performed all through Rockland and will be completed by the end of the month. Officials ask:

If you see staff on the roads in county vehicles driving slowly doing these treatments, please be patient. Also, try to avoid parking over storm drains while County staff are doing the treatment work so that they can access the catch basins more easily.

"Mosquitoes can sometimes spread disease, such as West Nile Virus or Zika Virus. The West Nile Virus has been found in local mosquitoes, and Rockland County has had cases of the virus in people which was spread from local mosquitoes. The Zika virus has not been found in local mosquitoes, and our only cases of Zika are from people who have traveled to areas where the Zika Virus is spreading," said Health Commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert.

Mosquito-borne diseases include the most infamous, malaria and yellow fever, plus viruses such as West Nile, Zika and Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

Since 2000, 490 human cases and 37 deaths of West Nile Virus have been reported across New York State. In 2018, while a mosquito that carries Zika, Aedes albopictus, was identified in Rockland and five other New York counties (Broome, Nassau, Orange, Suffolk, Westchester) and in NYC, the 10 human cases were all travel-associated, state health officials said. There were 52 cases of malaria reported to the state Department of Health in 2018.

Mosquitoes lay their eggs in or near stagnant (still) water, and their offspring (called larva) "grow up" in water before emerging as adult mosquitoes that fly and bite.

Since the West Nile virus outbreak in 1999, the Health Department has been collecting, identifying and tracking mosquitoes, both in their adult and larval stages, and providing education and free mosquito control products to the public to reduce the mosquito population.

The Mosquito Control Program focuses on reducing Rockland's mosquito population at the larval stage during the spring and summer months through the identification and monitoring of over 1,000 mosquito-breeding sites. In addition, approximately 50,000 road-side catch basins throughout the County are reviewed and treated, as needed. Program staff also conduct routine and complaint-based inspections at many commercial properties that are considered "high risk" for mosquito breeding, including tire-storage facilities, landscape yards, municipal storage yards, outdoor swimming pool facilities, horse farms, marinas, and garden centers, as well as respond to complaints against private residential properties.

Residents can help by checking their property for ANY items that can hold water and get rid of the items or empty the water out and scrub the inside of the item at least once a week.

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