Residents living near the Bandon Marsh on the southern coast were plagued by thousands of biting mosquitoes last summer. It’s getting better. After public pressure, officials have reduced the bug population.
The number of Aedes dorsalis mosquitoes in the Bandon Marsh area is significantly lower than last year. But Coos County’s environmental health program manager Rick Hallmark says the numbers have been increasing lately. Just a few weeks ago there were only 10 to 15 in each trap.
Hallmark: “The last set of traps, one area had more than 250 of the mosquito that is really mean, mean in that it’ll bite through your Levis and it’s the one that really troubled people last year.”
There were ten times more of these “mean” mosquitoes in the traps last July.
Aedes dorsalis is one of five mosquito species troubling the area. To combat the biting insect, the county hired a contractor to apply BTI – a pesticide that targets mosquito larvae. The county is also looking into using natural predators such as bats to control the populations.