LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Voters will be asked to join the Berkshire County Mosquito Control Project at town meeting.

 

The Board of Selectmen voted to add a warrant article asking voters to join the efforts to control mosquito populations after meeting with project Superintendent Christopher Horton. The project is state run and so far eight other Berkshire towns are part of the local effort — those are Clarksburg, Hinsdale, Otis, Pittsfield, Richmond, Sheffield, Stockbridge and Tyringham.

 

"It's basically a plan of attack against mosquito populations used across the world," Horton said.

 

Horton said Berkshire County is a "mosquito prone area" because of the number of river valley and flood plain areas where mosquito breed. In partnership with the state Department of Public Health, the mosquito populations are controlled and monitored for diseases and numbers. 

 

"The first thing we do is identify breeding sources," Horton said.

 

The project workers start with global position satellite mapping of the entire town to find breeding sites including flood areas, spring pools, tire dumps and others. The group then performs surveillance to see if larvae is present and if so, those sites are treated with a chemical that targets certain breeds of mosquito.

 

"It targets what we want to kill and doesn't effect others in the water," Horton said.

 

The workers also trap mosquitoes and send them to the Department of Public Health for testing on a weekly basis. There the state determines if any of those are infected with eastern equine encephalitis or West Nile virus. If so, then the project launches another round of chemical spraying to reduce the possible infections.

 

"We do intense adult control. That kills off the adult mosquito, the infected mosquito," Horton said. "If we intervene early and it is a mosquito and bird interaction, we can flatten it before it gets to a human."

 

Horton says the diseases can spread quickly and mostly are transferred through birds. A mosquito bites a bird that then transfers the disease to another, infecting other mosquitoes. Both EEE and West Nile can harm humans. In 2012, a Berkshire County woman was hospitalized because of West Nile.

 

At the start of each season, the organization will also treat catch basins in town to keep mosquitoes from breeding. 

 

"It is a high level of science behind this. Our products have been developed over a long term. There is very little risk to people," Horton said.

 

The chemicals themselves being harmless is up for debate. In Pittsfield, a number of community residents presented information saying there is significant environmental and health hazards by using them.

 

The adulticide spray Duet is one of the chemicals being used there and opponents say it has been shown to cause developmental delays in young children, similar to lead poisoning, as well as causing significant damage to the ecosystem. Critics called for the use of alternative options such as the installation of bat houses to encourage growth in the bat population. Bats can eat hundreds of mosquitoes in an hour.

 

The Pittsfield Board of Health and Horton responded to those critics with a different set of research, saying the chemicals have not been shown to do such things. Horton then added that the adulticide spray is only a last resort called for when diseases are found or the population numbers are uncontrollable otherwise. Additionally, households have the ability to opt out of treatments on their property.

 

Ultimately, the program was left unchanged and the Pittsfield has remained in the program.

 

Horton didn't have a firm number of the cost for Lanesborough to join but said it would likely be around $15,000. That money comes from the state but the same amount is reduced from the town's unrestricted aid allocation. Joining the project also comes with the stipulation that the town is involved for a minimum of five years.

 

Town Manager Paul Sieloff said the budget has already been set without those funds. However, there is a $20,000 line for Fire Department equipment that the Board of Selectmen is considering using toward principal on a highway truck loan. Sieloff recommended instead to use those funds to offset the loss of unrestricted aid in joining the district.

 

"That is the place I'd suggest we take the money out of. That way the budget stays in its place," Sieloff said.

 

Horton said with the fiscal year starting in July, most of the work this year would be the mapping portion, with treatment starting in spring 2017.