OCEAN CITY - State officials have stopped the spraying of an abundant and particularly bothersome species of mosquito, saying they have found that effort was a waste of taxpayer's money.
Cyrus Lesser, mosquito control director for the state Department of Agriculture, said that studies of spraying in the hard-hit Cape St. Claire area of Anne Arundel County had shown that pesticides were ineffective in controlling the Asian tiger mosquito.
Lesser said Maryland is producing a bumper crop of the biting insects this year after months of wetter-than-normal weather. In some areas, he said, mosquito populations were running 10 to 20 times higher than in previous years.
Among those areas, he said, were eastern Anne Arundel County and southeastern Baltimore County - some of the same places where spraying for the tiger mosquito has been discontinued. Lesser said the tiger mosquito is now the predominant species in these areas.
In a panel discussion at the Maryland Association of Counties meeting here yesterday, Lesser said the department is getting hundreds of requests a week for spraying.
He said his decision to discontinue spraying in areas where the tiger mosquito is the main problem has not been well received by local residents, adding that he has been getting calls from state senators, delegates and local officials asking him to spray.
Among the officials dissatisfied with the state's response is Anne Arundel Councilwoman Catherine M. Vitale, who says she's received numerous calls about the state's mosquito control efforts.
"They feel that the state has not done as good a job as they could have," said Vitale, a Republican who represents the Cape St. Claire area. She said she wouldn't want the state to continue to use ineffective sprays. "If that's not working, find out what will," she said.
Lesser said the problem is that the tiger mosquito, a relative newcomer to the United States, is a daytime biter while the state only sprays at night. The pesticide the state uses dissipates too quickly to work, he said.
The scientist said the invader is a "pest mosquito" that is not known to spread disease. He said the best way to fight the mosquito is for residents to eliminate pools of standing water - as small as an overturned bottle cap - in which mosquitos can breed.
Lesser said the state is continuing to spray pesticides to kill adult mosquitoes in parts of the state where other species predominate. "We've done so much the budget is in trouble," he said.
Many residents of infested neighborhoods don't want to hear that message, Lesser said. "They've not been overly cooperative in taking care of the problem in their own back yards," he said.
