The good news about ticks and mosquitoes topping Monday’s Board of Health agenda is they have superseded Covid-19.
The bad news is… well, ticks and mosquitoes.
“You have to assume they’re everywhere,” said board member Maureen Richichi about ticks. It can take years to identify locations where they are most prevalent, said her colleague Ann Kiessling.
Communities don’t do organized tick control, Health and Human Services Director Heidi Porter told the board. “The majority of our outreach is for personal protection,” she said, with an emphasis on clothing.
The department distributes written information to the schools and the Council on Aging, and an intern is planning a comprehensive survey to identify where people are finding ticks, she reported. “We want to make sure we talk to people who work outdoors,” such as Department of Public Works crews.
Porter said her department also promoted the installation of a tick barrier for the playing fields on South Road and is looking for the best sites to install others.
Kiessling asked why the barrier is far from the adjacent wooded area. Board Chair Susan Schwartz said the barrier may require explanatory signage because some people think it’s a field boundary.
Regarding mosquitoes, Porter said the state Department of Public Health has told local departments that it doesn’t expect eastern equine encephalitis in the commonwealth this year.
Porter outlined the benefits of Bedford’s membership in the Eastern Middlesex Mosquito Control Project. “We have a real robust program here in Bedford,” she said. “Not all area communities have access to the services we have.”
Technicians from the project target mosquito larvae, applying pesticide manually and by helicopter, she said, adding that unlike 2021, wet weather did not determine this spring’s applications.
The project, she continued, also provides pesticides that the Department of Public Works deposits in catch basins, where standing water represents potential breeding locations.
Project employees also attack mosquitoes in “small, secluded wetland areas,” spray before large outdoor events like Bedford’s 2021 outdoor town meeting, and provide educational materials and presentations, Porter said.
Trucks also “roam the community,” applying spray based on data from the number of mosquitoes trapped by the project, she said. “They also respond if there’s a large population” of mosquitoes, like in 2021. This year is not comparable, Porter indicated.
Mike Rosenberg can be reached at [email protected], or 781-983-1763
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