The Board of Health, Berkshire County Mosquito Control Project Administrator Christopher Horton, and a working group formed by the mayor all discussed the city's efforts to control the mosquito population on Wednesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — An ad hoc committee asked the Board of Health on Wednesday to incorporate alternative methods into its mosquito controls to reduce the use of chemicals.

 

Tri-Town Health Director James Wilusz served with residents Kathy Lloyd and Joe Durwin on a working group. He presented the group's findings on Wednesday that called for more education, more alternative uses, and a clearly formed risk criteria that defines when adulticide spraying is done.

 

"Overall, we'd like to see the reduction of adulticiding," Wilusz said.

 

Adulticide is a chemical combination designed to kill the adult mosquito; larvacide kills the developing insect.

 

The group was formed during the winter after heated debates over the use of the chemicals. Opponents argue there is an environmental and health hazard in using them. Proponents said mosquitoes were the hazard, not the chemicals.

 

Mayor Daniel Bianchi formed the ad hoc group to make suggestions on how to improve the Berkshire County Mosquito Control Project's efforts in the city, including the use of alternative methods.

 

Last summer, a truck mounted with the adulticide spray DUET was used six times before a single case of West Nile virus or Eastern Equine Encephalitis was found. In September, a mosquito tested positive to West Nile and the city was sprayed again. It was the only finding of disease in 2014.

 

The state Department of Public Health elevates risk levels when a disease is found in two samples or one human case. Wilusz, a former city health director, said there has only been one case of West Nile in a human in the Berkshires and no cases of EEE in the last three years.

 

"There has not been a consistent documented prevalence of West Nile and EEE," he said.

 

And yet, adulticide spray was used nine times last year. The Berkshire County Mosquito Control Project responded to 212 calls for service from residents wanting adulticide treatments and 20 properties were served with individual treatments via backpack application.

 

Wilusz and the group said the Board of Health should only allow the spraying when the health risk has raised according to Department of Public Health standards. Mosquito Control Project Administrator Christopher Horton, however, said he follows recommendations from the federal Centers for Disease Control in determining when to spray.

 

"It was a preventative measure. It was not looked at as a nuisance response," Public Health Director Gina Armstrong said.

 

The Board of Health didn't just look at the population numbers when approving Horton's request but what species of mosquitoes were prevalent. When species that are more likely to carry the disease are prevalent in high numbers, the board decides to spray that area.

 

Horton says he doesn't prefer the truck-mounted sprayings but it is a tool the project has to use on occasion to keep population numbers under a certain threshold. The project uses a number of techniques to control every age group of mosquito population, he said, using larvacides to adulticides.

 

"It is a science. We are practioners of science," Horton said. "We know what the mosquito populations are and we want to keep those levels below the thresholds [for common diseases]."

 

The working group members said they, too, are in favor of controlling the population. But, they want more of an effort to do it without chemicals: pesticides, larvacides, or adulticides. 

 

Lloyd said there are natural items like bacillus thuringiensis israelensis that can help. BTI, as it is known, has been shown to decrease mosquito populations by 90 percent over a decade in areas where it has been applied, she said. BTI is a naturally occurring bacteria in soil.

 

"It can be spread in wetlands. It can be spread into drainage," she said. "This is a request to re-evaluate how we address mosquitoes."

 

Wilusz suggest bat houses could be placed in certain areas to help control the population or using rain gardens — all efforts that have proven to work in other areas. 

 

The group said the Mosquito Control Project is short on resources to manage more control systems and suggested that the city allocate some money and work to the Department of Public Works to apply control methods in the storm-water system or in wetlands. Otherwise, the "short-term" sprayings won't make a large impact, they said.

 

Whatever program the city opts to go with should also include an educational aspect, Wilusz said. The group said it isn't clear whether the city is using the truck-mounted sprays as a nuisance response or a health response. 

 

Using it only when the health risk is raised to DPH's standards would make it clear to the public when and why the spraying is to be done, they said, and residents in areas that will be treated should know exactly what the risk factors are.

 

Board of Health Chairwoman Roberta Orsi defended the board's decisions to use chemical treatments based on the project's response protocol but was also supportive of trying to incorporate the group's suggestions.