Last year, New Jersey saw a record-high 48 cases of West Nile Virus including six deaths. Vote in the news poll.
Piles of wet debris and pools of standing water left over from the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy could lead to a rise this summer in mosquito populations, New Jersey Department of Health officials warned this week.
"This season will be especially challenging because Superstorm Sandy has created new places for mosquitoes to breed such as wet debris piles and depressions left by fallen trees," state health commissioner Mary O'Dowd said in a release. "It's important to remove, clean or repair anything that can collect rain or sprinkler water such as debris, clogged or damaged gutters or old car tires."
Officials said controlling the spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile Virus is a primary concern. Last year, New Jersey saw a record-high 48 cases of West Nile Virus including six deaths.
"While we typically don't identify human
illnesses from mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile Virus
until late summer here in New Jersey, it's never too early to drain
sources of standing water and reduce the number of places mosquitoes can
lay their eggs and breed," O'Dowd said.
While some local officials who track mosquito populations agree that residents should take preventive measures to mitigate the threat of breeding, they doubt Sandy's lingering effects will have any substantial impact on this summer's populations in the Lehigh Valley and Warren County.
Louise Bugbee, a West Nile coordinator for the Penn State Extension in Lehigh County, said that New Jersey's coastal areas present a different threat from a topographical standpoint that won't necessarily have an effect on the greater Lehigh Valley.
View full sizeThe Asian Tiger mosquito, which appeared in Warren County last year for the first time. Jennifer Gruener of the Warren County Mosquito Commission tends to agree with Bugbee's analysis.
Coastal areas in New Jersey where items have been left over from the receding tide after the storm are especially prone to mosquito breeding, Gruener said.
But that won't necessarily translate to greater populations in this area, she said.
"It's hard to tell," Gruener said. "Predicting mosquito populations is like predicting the weather."
Rather than Sandy-related increases, both Bugbee and Gruener are instead preparing to fight the spread of the Asian Tiger mosquito, an aggressive, black-and-white species that touched down in Warren County for the first time last year.
"We're really trying to be proactive and (keep) the numbers of that mosquito down," Gruener said.
Both also said that in order to keep the mosquito numbers down, it's crucial that residents take it upon themselves to empty out any items that may be collecting water.
"People tend to forget that it's a neighborhood effort," Bugbee said.