THE METRO PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT VIOLATES MOSQUITO CONTROL POLICY IN WEST MEADE

The Health Department made claims they sprayed in West Meade because of the large numbers of mosquitoes and other areas of Nashville. Sometimes their claims were correct. Other times they violated their own policy and sprayed even though mosquito populations had gone below their minimum action threshold of 35 mosquitoes. Under the Tennessee Open Records Law, the No Spray Coalition requested the mosquito trapping results for all areas of Nashville. So far, we've discovered two violations of the Health Department's policies in Donelson, Sylvan Park, and West Meade. Below are the mosquito trapping results given to volunteers by the Health Department: 70/100 West Meade on Cana, 37205

Date #Culex mosquitoes
5/02 ... 472
5/04 ... 674 (want to find out what was done)
5/09 ... 193
5/11 ... 150
5/13 ... BACK YARD INSPECTION DAY
5/16 ... 26 (A large decrease in mosquito population.)
5/18 ... 374 (The mosquitoes make a come back)
5/23 ... 426
5/25 ... 158
5/31 ... 112
6/2 ... 128
6/06 ... 627
6/08 ... 471
6/12 ...SPRAYED
6/13 ... 89
6/15 ... 215 (more than double in less than 2 days!)
6/20 ... 137
6/22 ... 59 (Test site numbers were down across Nashville during this weeks this whether they were sprayed or not. ) 6/27... 194
6/29... 100
7/06... 73
7/7... 27
7/11... 123
7/13... 86 decision to spray took place this day
7/18... 86 (Alton Road has 53 trapped)
7/20... 28 SPRAYED (This violated the Health Dept's minimum action threshold policy of 35 female mosquitoes.
7/25... 41 Mosquito numbers went up after spraying.
7/27... 25
8/01... 47
8/08... 32
8/10... 11
8/15... 8
8/17... 12

Why should this concern citizens? Spraying mosquitoes without significant numbers of mosquitoes can contribute to the mosquito problem rather than help it. This is because using pesticides when they are not needed creates resistance in mosquitoes.

The MPHD's Mosquito Control Policy states:
"The primary action threshold for ULV truck-mounted application of Anvil is the identification of a pool of mosquito positive for WNV or the identification of a human case.

However, the minimum action threshold for initiating ULV truck-mounted application of insecticide is a mosquito population density of 35 female mosquitoes in a gravid trap....

In making the decision for ULV truck-mounted application of insecticides based on minimum action threshold, mosquito density data used in make such decision must be from the area of concern and must have been collected within a period not exceeding 48 hours prior to initiation of treatment. "
Source: http://healthweb.nashville.gov

There have been five positive mosquito pools found in as of July 17, 2006.
Locations and dates of positive mosquito pools in 2006:
6/02/06 Hamilton Road 37218 (North Nashville) no other positive test have occurred.
6/13/06 William Bailey Drive 37207 (North Nashville) 2 positive tests were found. No other positive tests have occurred.
7/18/06 Shadow Lane, 37206 (East Nashville) no ono other positive test have occurred.
7/18/06 Quail Run Court, 37214 (Donelson) no other positive test have occurred.