The Board of Selectmen at a recent meeting approved a $13,280 contract with a Branford-based ecological management firm to put mosquito larvicide in New Canaan’s storm drains.
Representatives from All Habitat Services LLC come to town four times per year to dump a product called Vectolex into some 2,656 catch basins, Parks Superintendent John Howe told the Board.
Doing so is “the best thing we can do for West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis,” Howe said at the Aug. 20 meeting, held in Town Hall.
Vectolex “reproduces itself, so it gives us longer control,” Howe said.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the contract.
All Habitat Services has held its pricing in recent years, Howe said.
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station tests mosquitoes captured in two traps in New Canaan, one along Route 123 near the Norwalk border, and one on Michigan Road. Of more than 800 total mosquitoes trapped in New Canaan this year, none have tested positive for West Nile Virus as of Aug. 26, according to the state Department of Public Health.
According to Howe, the best thing after treating the catch basins is for residents to ensure they’ve dumped rainwater out of tires or wheelbarrows on their properties.
Moynihan asked whether the larvicide washes away during heavy storms. Howe said yes, though it helps that this particular product reproduces itself.
“If we got 10 inches of rain and then another 10 inches of rain, it is really going to reduce its effectiveness, and then we shrink the window some for the next application,” he said.
KM: Does it wash away in storm?
JH: It does wash away but even when it is a heavy storm, water in a catch basin some wills tay inside. but even heavy storm, water in catch basin stay I side, reproduce on its own. If we got 10 inches of rain and then another 10 inches of rain, it is really going to reduce its effectiveness, and then we shrink the window some for the next application. four aplications, try to leave one for June. One for July to end of October.