Nearly 2,000 D.C. Households Cut Mosquitoes With Traps and Bti as Climate Change Lengthens Season
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 14
Nearly 2,000 D.C. Households Cut Mosquitoes With Traps and Bti as Climate Change Lengthens Season
2 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 14
Summary
Nearly 2,000 households in one Washington, D.C., neighborhood have joined a community mosquito-control drive, using traps and standing-water treatment that residents say has already reduced bugs early this summer.
The effort targets the main breeding mechanism: mosquitoes can lay hundreds of eggs in as little as a tablespoon of water, so residents are tossing standing water, using Bti larvicide and setting traps for adults and egg-laying females.
Michelle Mingrone launched the campaign in March; more than 1,000 people responded in the first week, and hundreds later signed on as organizers and block captains.
Bart Knols, a mosquito biologist, said similar trap-dense programs cut populations 90% to 95% on islands and eliminated two species in the Philippines in under six months, though total eradication is unrealistic in a city.
The neighborhood push comes as climate change makes mosquito seasons longer and more intense, raising disease risks including West Nile, which is now endemic in D.C.