April 20, 2022

City of Mansfield Council Members,

This correspondence will focus on what is considered the mainstream mosquito control policy of all major mosquito control groups and how the City of Mansfield’s Environmental Services Department does or does not conform to it.  You can form your own opinion of how the department follows these guidelines.

During the City Council Meeting of 8-24-2020 Mr. Leyman asked Mr. VanAmburgh  …“Tarrant County policies are really not in compliance with CDC recommendations.  Is that correct or not correct?”…  Mr. VanAmburgh’s answer was …  “I can’t respond to that” “I don’t know what specific CDC guidelines would be referenced there so I can’t respond to that”…

Our response would have been the EPA’s statements from epa.gov …  “Successful mosquito management requires intervening at some point during the mosquito’s life cycle before they bite and infect a human”  “The greatest impact on mosquito populations will occur when they are concentrated, immobile and accessible. Egg and larva interventions are generally the most effective, least costly, way to control mosquitoes.  This emphasis focuses on habitat management and controlling the immature stages (egg, larva, and pupa) before the mosquitoes emerge as adults.  This approach minimizes the use from widespread pesticide application.”  “Egg and larva interventions are generally the most effective, least costly, way to control mosquitoes.”

To what degree the Environmental Services Department follows guidelines or recommendations depend on how much emphasis is placed on preventative measures as compared to ground spraying events.  The more preventative measures that are taken the less ground spraying will be needed.

Preemptive / Proactive Activities for 2021:

One of the 2021 records was a spreadsheet named “Mosquito Inspection Checklist (Responses) Redacted” with columns for “street address” and “able to reach resident”.  The entries were for what seem to be requests from residents about mosquitoes, what was found and what was done if anything.  There were 73 entries with nothing found or done at 39 of them.  That leaves 34 where things like leaving larvicides and draining water on individual properties.  There were no invoices from the City’s mosquito control contractor for any larviciding activities in the City.

During a meeting with Mr. VanAmburgh, Mr. Redfearn and Mr. Cowdan in April of 2019 I asked for records for habitat removal and larviciding activities that had been completed and was told that no records were being kept.  When I asked if I could see future proactive activities I was told “no” since there were no records currently being kept.  There doesn’t seem to be much interest for any substantive preemptive mosquito control activities being performed and transparence is becoming a concern at this point.

Pesticide Ground Spraying Activities for 2021:

During 2021 the Environmental Services Department contracted the City to be ground sprayed for 62 events (if three different areas were sprayed on the same night that counted as three).  This totaled 775 miles with 240 gallons of pesticide that covered 6,218 acres for a cost of $32,523.20.  One night alone totaled 73 miles with 20.8 gallons of pesticide that covered 2,632 acres for a cost of $3,038.70.  Twenty of those ground spray events extended to one mile.  The Fox Glen area of the City was ground sprayed on fourteen different occasions.  It would be easy to assume that ground spraying impacted thousands of homes in the City.

In comparing the 34 individual property treatments with the sheer volume of ground spraying there is no denying that by far the vast majority of mosquito control was done with ground spraying and any attempt to justify these actions is totally unacceptable.

During the City Council meeting of 8-24-2020 Mr. VanAmburgh made a comment defending the actions of his department with “we were not anticipating of being accused of doing nothing but spraying which is false”.  There may have been a slight amount of hyperbole in our statement but from the data above that was compiled from records obtained from the City it appears that our observation was anything but “false”.

Thank you,

Larry McFarland