We are a group of residents seeking to move the City of Mansfield’s Environmental Services Department mosquito control focus and response to a program that is more protective of public health and the environment and provide more transparency to the community. Below is a summary of the ES Department’s response for 2020. This information shows how habitat reduction and larviciding, the two most fundamental approaches to mosquito control, are practically nonexistent while ground spraying of pesticides make up the majority of the response. We also believe that by not following known best practices for mosquito control the public in general is more at risk from contracting West Nile Virus and subject to an overall higher mosquito population.
Habitat Reduction
Habitat reduction efforts appear to be six items that include things such as culvert, inlet and street drainage issues.
Larviciding Efforts
One area of the city received a one hour larvicide treatment at a cost of $135. This appears to be approximately an 800′ strip of creek in a neighborhood.
A total of four days were spent visiting eight properties finding mosquito activity at only four of the locations.
Adulticiding
During the 2020 season six different areas of the city were ground sprayed for twenty nights totaling 601.9 miles with 198.4 gallons of pesticide for a cost of $25,279.86.
The maps below are of the the six different areas of the City that were ground sprayed multiple times. Hundreds if not into the thousands of homes were involved. The latest census report shows that Mansfield has about 22.000 households.
Our Observations and Conclusions
Here is one example of where we the Environmental Services Department is making questionable decisions. The “Twin Creeks” area was ground sprayed eight nights in a three week period and when asked what habitat removal and larviciding had been done in that area there answer was: “Yes, larvicide and habitat removal have been completed this year.” “Yes, we have gone out to evaluate some of the infrastructure in these areas. No, we have not found any breeding in the location where we have evaluated conditions. Therefore, no larvicide or habitat removal makes sense.”
That response was on August 24, the beginning of the third week of ground spraying of the “Twin Creeks” area, bypassing the most basic proven effective means of mosquito control.