DNREC News - Division of Fish and Wildlife Completes Mosquito Control Project on Rehoboth Bay Marshes

Vol. 31, No. 5
February 7, 2001

For more information, contact Dave Saveikis at the Division of Fish and Wildlife's Milford field office at (302) 422-1512.

Division of Fish and Wildlife Completes Mosquito Control Project on Rehoboth Bay Marshes

There's good news for residents of the east side of Rehoboth Bay: this summer they can look forward to fewer pesky mosquitoes.

The Division of Fish and Wildlife, Mosquito Control Section has installed open marsh water management (OMWM) systems on marshes along Rehoboth Bay from south of Dewey Beach to near the Indian River Inlet.

The project involves installing small ponds and ditches in mosquito breeding wetlands. These new water features provide habitat for naturally occurring marsh fishes that consume mosquito larvae before they can emerge as adults that migrate and annoy people in nearby communities. Mosquito production is greatly reduced and the need to apply insecticides to wetlands to control mosquito larvae is largely reduced.

According to David E. Saveikis, Mosquito Control Section program manager, "These open marsh water management systems should control more than 90 per cent of the mosquito larvae on these sites for over a decade. For all practical purposes, we should not need to apply insecticides to control mosquito larvae to these marshes for some time, saving money and helping us meet our goal of reducing insecticide applications."

An added benefit of OMWM is that the technique also is used to restore or enhance wetlands. According to Chris Lesser, the environmental scientist responsible for the design of the Division's OMWM systems, "Open water marsh management ponds and ditches provide habitat for a wide variety of wetland waterbirds and other wildlife. We often see ducks and herons using our ponds."

OMWM is installed according to strict guidelines researched and developed to ensure that desirable wetland plants rapidly recolonize disturbed areas, usually within the first year after installation, Lesser emphasizes.

Additional information on mosquito control or OMWM can be obtained by calling the Division's Milford Mosquito Control field office at (302) 422-1512.

Document number 40-01/01/02/34

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