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8.5.2000
Westerly larvicide drop targets acres of swampland
 Officials say it'll be sometime next week before they can gauge whether or not it was successful.
By TIFFANY BARTISH
Journal Staff Writer
WESTERLY
-- State and town officials yesterday used a helicopter to drop nearly 5,200 pounds of larvicide on acres of swamp near Chapman Pond.
The drop -- which organizers say went "very well" -- comes after officials found mosquito larvae "well exceeding" acceptable numbers in the Chapman Swamp.
It took the helicopter several hours to make low passes over the densely forested area to drop a commonly used larvicide, called BTI, on about 700 acres in the Chapman Swamp and the swamp area behind Hesspar Drive.
In its larvicide form, BTI has "cornmeal-like" consistency that dissolves in the stomach of the larvae and produces a toxin fatal to the mosquito, according to information from the Central Massachusetts Mosquito Control Project.
The goal is to use the bacterium -- which is safe for humans and other wildlife -- to control larvae before they reach adulthood, said John Fusaro, Westerly's superintendent of public works.
Fusaro said the town should be able to gauge the success of the larviciding sometime next week when workers will go into the swamp and do a "dip count" to look primarily for dead larvae.
"We were very satisfied with [the larviciding]. It went off in a very timely manner, and we just hope the results are good," he said.
Larviciding is not cheap -- Fusaro estimates that yesterday's drop will cost about $6,000 in chemicals and chopper time -- but it can save lives.
Recently, the state Department of Environmental Management detected the Highland J virus in mosquitoes trapped near Chapman Pond. The virus is not a threat to humans, but it indicates that conditions are ripe for mosquitoes to breed and carry potentially dangerous viruses, such as Eastern equine encephalitis.
The EEE virus has killed three people in Rhode Island since 1983. It is rare, but very dangerous since it is fatal about 50 percent of the time, and in 1996, DEM repeatedly found EEE in mosquitoes trapped in Chapman Pond.
That's one of the reasons Liz Goulart, a Hesspar Drive resident, said she's happy with the town's mosquito-control tactics. The other reason, she said, is that the swamp behind her house is producing mosquitoes at a staggering rate this rainy summer.
In fact, the pests have been so bad that she won't let her two dogs outside at sunset.
"We live near a swamp and we expect to have bugs, but I'm glad they're doing something about it," she said.
According to information from the state Office of Mosquito Abatement, adult mosquitoes live for several weeks to several months, depending on different factors.
Yesterday's spraying won't kill adult mosquitoes, but Fusaro agreed that it "might" have some effect down the line when the current adults die naturally and the new generation is smaller because of larviciding.
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