For Release: October 30, 1998

Contact: Alan Gettman, Ph.D. 222-6151

PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management wrapped up its mosquito trapping and testing program for the season today, when it received back test results on the five lone mosquitoes trapped Monday night, October 26. The five tested negative for Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE).

DEM's Mosquito Abatement Program staff trapped (and counted) a total of 18,539 mosquitoes during 20 weeks of trapping throughout the state, using an average of 20 traps per week. Staff sorted the mosquitoes by species into a total of 776 pools of mosquitoes, and sent them to the Massachusetts Department of Health for testing.

Test results through the summer showed no presence of EEE in mammal-biting mosquitoes, although EEE in bird-biters was confirmed in 14 pools from traps in three towns - South Kingstown, Richmond, and Westerly.

With the drop in temperatures that signals the end of the mosquito season, Alan Gettman, Ph.D., DEM's mosquito abatement coordinator can turn his attention once again to long term solutions to mosquito control. Those tasks include assisting in salt marsh restorations that reduce mosquito production sites, administering a grants program that provides matching funds to communities for mosquito abatement, and advising municipalities on mosquito control techniques tailored to individual community needs.

During the non-trapping months, Gettman maps mosquito production areas used in planning salt marsh restorations and recommends designs that, for instance, change ditches that are mosquito breeding grounds into fish reservoirs. He searches out likely projects and works with towns to mitigate mosquito production while reclaiming degraded salt marshes.

Upcoming projects include Jacobs Point on the Warren/Bristol line, where a manmade dike has restricted 20 acres of marsh, and two projects in Westerly. Last spring, he helped solve a mosquito problem at the Sachuest Wildlife Refuge in Middletown, where a new culvert now allows water to flow.

During the past year, the grants program administered by Gettman awarded a total of $66,288 to 10 communities: Bristol, Portsmouth, Tiverton, Warren, Warwick, Westerly, North Kingstown, Narragansett, Middletown, and South Kingstown. The application period for the next round will be announced at the beginning of the new year, with grants to be awarded in the spring.