MOUNT VERNON — Mosquitoes may have shown up a bit earlier this year, due to the warm winter, but numbers are normal and the Knox County Health Department will begin its annual spraying program on schedule after Memorial Day.
Environmental Health Director Nate Overholt said he saw mosquitoes as early as February, but he has not seen any unusual numbers and has been planning the annual mosquito-fogging program. Although the unusually warm weather in February and March brought some mosquitoes out early, he attributes the near normal numbers to the cool nights in parts of March and April and that there hasn’t been a lot of rain in May. Without excess rain, we haven’t had excess water standing around in old tires, holes in trees and similar things.
Overholt said the county’s mosquito spraying program will begin after Memorial Day, which is the normal time for it to start.
The chemicals used in the fogging are expensive. Overholt said the Knox County Board of Health had just approved the purchase of a 55-gallon drum, which cost $10,000. Last year, they paid $8,000 for a 30-gallon drum, but ran out and had to order more. In all, the program last year used 34 gallons of the chemicals, which allowed them to spray all communities in the county once, except for Fredericktown, which was done twice.
