Towns look to curb high mosquito populations

LELAND, NC (WWAY) — Locals have been seeing them everywhere.  

“Yes a lot more, yes,” Leland resident Karen Rice said. 

“Walking my dog, whether it be morning, evening, during the day, and I’ve gotten eaten alive,” Leland resident Sammy Gross added. 

“They just started getting bad just in the past week or so,” Leland resident Buck Grabouski noted. 

“I was out in the backyard just, what, a half hour ago in the middle of the day and oh there was one,” Leland resident Charlie Rice said. 

Last month, Tropical Storm Debby’s downpours left a lot of standing water around the Cape Fear.  Experts say all that water is the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.   

Randy Collins with Belville Parks and Recreation said one way they fight back against mosquitoes is their dragonfly sanctuary.   

That’s because dragonflies eat mosquito larvae.  

“Of course, when the storm hit, that’s when the mosquitoes came out. The larvae that was laid up north is following the tides in and out, and they’ve become active and that’s why we’ve seen such an increase in the past month,” Collins explained.  

Over in Leland, the town is using mosquito control trucks to spray the area.  

“And we will continue to do so until the population is under control,” Lynn Vetter said. 

Director of Public Works Lynn Vetter said the trucks target areas that have the most mosquitoes, like near bodies of water.  

“The treatment that we use is specifically for mosquitoes and we’ll use this treatment before sunrise, 5 a.m. to sunrise, or in the evening from sunset to 10 p.m.,” Vetter said. 

Mosquitoes can also carry serious viral infections, which can be spread through bites.  

Last month, there were a handful of cases of West Nile Virus in Columbus County.