With the beautiful warm days experienced in the tropics comes our number one enemy, mozzies.
Townsville City Council has been tackling the problem of mozzies by targeting their breeding sites on foot but also by air this year.
A full aerial spray of breeding sites is being completed at problem breeding sites, that are expected to be inundated during big tides over the New Year period.
The spray that’s distributed by a specialised helicopter covers areas between Cungulla in the south to the Northern Beaches, including Magnetic Island and the Town Common.
Community Health and Safety Committee chairman Cr Dale Last said the council treatments would knock out large numbers of mosquito larvae but people should use insect repellent as a safeguard.
“The council is using all available resources to destroy salt marsh mosquito larvae but the combination of recent rain and big tides has created ideal conditions for mozzies to breed,” Cr Last said
“Ground and air treatments will knock out a huge number of larvae before they can hatch, but even so there is so much water around that the community can expect an increase in salt marsh mozzie numbers.”
The budget for the mosquito spraying is $225,000 which covers 10 aerial treatments and regular ground spraying.
