Bugs breeding in foreclosed properties

By: Phil Gregory

All the home foreclosures we’ve been hearing about in this recession may be contributing to an increase in pests.

By: Phil Gregory
philgregorynews@gmail.com

All the home foreclosures we’ve been hearing about in this recession may be contributing to an increase in pests. Abandoned swimming pools at those properties are providing a source of stagnant water for mosquitoes to breed.

Listen:
[audio: 090803pgbugs.mp3]

Mosquito experts in New Jersey say all the rain we’ve had this summer has resulted in a larger than usual number of those biting bugs. Scott Crans is program coordinator at the Center for Vector Biology at Rutgers University which does mosquito research and control. He says the latest effort in Bergen County to put thousands of mosquito eating fish in abandoned residential swimming pools is a more effective control technique than draining and covering those pools.

Crans: The covering believe it or not usually causes more problems than not with regard to mosquitoes because water accumulates on the covers, leaves fall in those covers and they become perfect little breeding grounds.

Crans says spraying in several counties has helped control the mosquito population despite budget cuts to those programs.