As one of the oldest mosquito control agencies in the state of New Jersey, Mercer County Mosquito Control (MCMC) has been protecting the residents of Mercer County from mosquito-borne diseases through public education, surveillance and control of mosquitoes.

The agency performs “all acts which in its opinion may be necessary for the elimination of mosquito breeding areas, or which will tend to exterminate mosquitoes within the county.” A comprehensive surveillance program guides the agencies activities and control is emphasized on the elimination of mosquito-breeding habitat and eradication of mosquitoes when they are still in the aquatic stages of their development.

Surveillance for mosquito borne diseases concentrates on the newly introduced West Nile virus, but may also include Eastern equine encephalitis and Saint Louis encephalitis.

Mosquito control is a year round activity. Generally, the seasonal control operations start in March with the hatching of snowpool mosquito species and continue into November until the temperatures drop significantly. Although MCMC is most active during the summer season, many activities are also undertaken during the winter. Follow-up record keeping on the season’s mosquito activity at all the breeding sites continues beyond the active mosquito season. The inspection routes are revised, surveillance data analyzed to identify areas of high mosquito populations and virus activity, appropriate permits are pursued, equipment is maintained, and plans and protocols revised for the following season. Public education is also another important component of the activities of MCMC. Agency personnel are available for mosquito education presentations at local schools, community and civic centers.

Our protocol for adulticiding (spraying) for adult mosquitoes has been updated from previous years to serve the residents of Mercer County in a more efficient and environmentally safe manner. Our mosquito inspectors must take necessary steps before establishing the decision to adulticide. In order to standardize our procedures to meet the local, state, and federal regulations, our protocol will be as follows:

• One or more of our licensed inspectors will survey the area requested, properly survey and treat any breeding habitats found, either by larviciding, clearing blocked waterways, freeing impounded water etc…
  
• The inspector may choose to take a landing/bite count to determine the mosquito populations and species composition in the area.
  
• If the inspector feels that more extensive testing is necessary, surveillance traps may be appropriately placed on the premises overnight, and collected the following day.
  
• This data will be utilized to determine if adulticiding is necessary.

If we come to the conclusion that adulticiding is necessary, our protocol will be as follows:

Contacts

• The local police and health departments for that particular township will be notified as to when and where we will be adulticiding.
  
• Any residents that choose to be on our adulticide notification list will also be contacted.
  
• The adulticiding locations will be listed under the Spraying Schedule section of our website, under the subheading of Current Happenings. In addition, more detailed information will be provided on our hotline telephone number (609-530-7501).

Adulticide

We will be applying Scourge ® as our primary adulticide. Scourge ® contains the pesticide resmethrin and piperonyl butoxide. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current evaluation considers products containing resmethrin and piperonyl butoxide to have a minimal potential risk to the general public. Since Scourge ® has a relatively low toxicity and is used in very small amounts, it has minimal impacts on non-target organisms. Our applications will be conducted with Ultra Low Volume (ULV) equipment mounted on the back of our vehicles. For further information refer to our Scourge ® Fact Sheet on our website.