SIOUX FALLS, S.D.N (KELO) — The City of Sioux Falls is halfway through its spraying effort to curb the mosquito population.
Thursday night, crews finished spraying for the so-called ‘nuisance’ mosquitoes that have thrived during the wet summer.
Next week, the city will start taking aim at the mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus.
One homeowner, who’s swatted away his share of mosquitoes, is happy to see the spray trucks drive through his neighborhood.
It’s been breezy enough for Richard Lettow to mow his yard in short sleeves and not worry about exposing his bare arms to more mosquito bites. He already has the battle scars from previous encounters.
“I would say 8 to 10 bites just on this one arm and then another 8-10 over here, which would make twenty. Itching like crazy,” Lettow said.
Lettow says he’s been reluctant to step outside with all the mosquitoes in his yard.
“There were so many, they were in clouds, they were just like a pack of birds,” Lettow said.
The mosquitoes got so bad last week that Lettow had to take matters into his own hands and used this store-bought bug spray to hose down his infested backyard.
Then, city sprayers rolled through Lettow’s neighborhood in the first wave of taking on nuisance mosquitoes and eventually, those that carry West Nile.
“We still have plenty of nuisance mosquitoes out there and so this will do double-duty in the fact that we did a spray this week and the following week we should start to see our numbers come back down and hopefully we’ll be in a better place on both species,” Sioux Falls Public Health Director Joe Kippley said.
Lettow says this week’s spraying has made a difference.
“I think it’s better. I think it’s improved. But, we had a lot of room for improvement,” Lettow said.
Lettow says he’s glad the city will resume spraying next week; giving homeowners like him some peace of mind that this summer’s mosquito invasion is starting to be repelled.
Kippley says the city will learn how effective the spraying has been when they check mosquito traps next week.
The city has also re-started its larvicide treatments to kill mosquito larvae in standing water. The heavy rain from earlier this summer washed away all the larvicide that had been applied throughout the city, starting in April.
