Mosquitoes plague Westmoreland

Karrie Williams, Gleaner Writer

WESTMORELAND:Councillors of the Westmoreland Parish Council have recommended that the Westmoreland Health Department undertake more effective methods to combat mosquito infestation in the parish as fogging exercises no longer appear to be useful.

"I don't know if fogging is the right way to go about fighting our mosquito infestation," Chairman of the Parish Council and Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar Bertel Moore said during the regular monthly meeting of the council recently. "I remember years ago, the health department would be going out and oiling the water in certain areas.

"Nowadays, when fogging is done, it may keep mosquitoes away for a day, and tomorrow we are back to the same level of infestation. We must find a way out so that whatever we are doing can relieve us of the problem for at least one week," he said, adding that the pace of fogging was also too slow and, therefore, unacceptable.

Councillor for the Grange Hill Division, Lawton Mckenzie, questioned the criteria the health department used for selecting communities. He said the health department efforts would be better served if they were to fog neighbouring communities rather than those that were great distances apart.

"If you are fogging Little London, why would you then leave Little London and go to Negril instead of going to Delveland, Moreland Hill, and others that have mountainside areas?" he asked.

In response, Acting Chief Public Health Inspector for Westmoreland, Hyacinth Legister-Gordon, said fogging was no longer being routinely carried out. She said this was mainly due to the fact that there were only seven foggers servicing the entire parish, and their mobility was severely hampered as only one motor vehicle was available to them. In addition, she said consideration had to be given to the status of their health.

chemical exposure

"Foggers were withdrawn because they have a chemical exposure test that they have to take periodically. If after 30 hours their levels go up, then we have to pull them. We did the tests and the levels were up, so we have not been doing any fogging for a while now," said Legister-Gordon.

Councillor for the Frome Division, Paul Wilson, also agreed with his fellow councillors but went a step further to offer a solution to the parish's mosquito problems.

"There is an established, tried-and-proven approach when you are dealing with insects, that when the chemical approach fails, you take on the approach of introducing sterile mosquitoes into the population. It is almost like putting condoms on the mosquitoes so that after they've done their activities, there is nothing to come," he stated.