New Jersey Mosquito Control Association, Inc. NEWSLETTER Volume XXX Number 1 February 2018 NJMCA The oldest, still functioning mosquito control association in the United States. Message from the President - Eric Williges Hello again, Well, here we are coming up on spring again already. While it seems like every other day it’s been approaching 50° it is still winter, and according to Phil again this year it’s here to stay for six more weeks. Remembering the weather we had at the conference last year after that forecast, I’m hoping he’s wrong and I’m looking forward to seeing you all at this year’s conference. Reading through the rest of this newsletter you’re going to get all the information necessary to make sure you can attend, and getting you excited for what the 105th annual meeting is going to entail. Looking at the program I am excited to see so many new topics and speakers that fit into the theme of “Tools of the Trade”. As always we have a great mix of articles and new ideas that we can all use, and Teresa and the newsletter committee deserve our thanks for putting it all together. Since this is my last newsletter as President of the NJMCA I wanted to take a few sentences to thank you all. It’s been an honor to serve as President and be able to help move our organization forward. Being President helped me learn from everyone’s experience and ideas to make sure we looked at all sides as we responded to issues on both state and national levels, and took advantage of all the available opportunities. It has given me the chance to continue building our connections with other states and regions, along with trying to improve how we deal with private industry, State departments, and the State legislature. I truly would not have guessed I would have this opportunity when I joined our community and so I thank you all so much for giving me your help and support. Can’t wait to see everyone in Atlantic City next month! Breaking News! The votes have been counted and Clara Maass won induction into the N.J. Hall of Fame. Gov. Murphy said the hall exists to celebrate some of the most famous and most impactful NJ natives. The hall is where their stories are told and retold to inspire. ~ Howard Emerson Highlights- Inside this issue: #NJMCA 2 County Corner—Hunterdon 3 News from the Northeast 5 Train the Trainer 6 A visit to Mercer County 8 From the Archives 11 NJMCA Meeting Special Insert 14 Volume XXX Number 1 1 NJMCA Newsletter #NJMCA A report by the Public Relations Committee Social Media, by definition, is a collective of online communication channels used by large groups of people to share information and develop social and professional contacts. But to be fair, this definition really means something different to each and every user engaged in social media. It can be just checking in on Facebook, microblogging on Twitter, swiping through pictures on Instagram, or professionally networking on LinkedIn. Whatever your mood or interest, you can engage as much or as little as you want. This is what makes social media so powerful. NJMCA is now part of social media. In the past year, we have gained 196 followers on Facebook, 417 followers on Twitter, 151 followers on Instagram, and we are currently building the LinkedIn page. Our reach spans across the globe. We have followers in Australia, Philippines, Panama, Canada, England, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Ghana, Spain, and Malaysia, just to name a few. We have major mosquito districts following us as well, including many in California, Texas, Florida, and other states. As we continue to gain followers and agencies, we collect, share, and collaborate information together. With social media we gain insight into new research, upcoming technology, educational outreach, and virus transmission in real time. In the last year, our inspirational committee promoted several hashtags including: #SpeciesSpotlight (highlighting a different individual mosquito species every Friday, explaining habitat, feeding host, seasonal distributions, and vector competencies) #FollowFriday (promoting other individuals/agencies and gaining followers) #WinterWorkWednesday (explaining our work during the winter months) #JustDumpIt or #DumpandDrain (eliminating possible habitat) #TransformationTuesday (explaining transformation from egg to adult) We also created a mosquito poem for Halloween, shared videos of our in-house live collections, interacted with other mosquito agencies, promoted county festivals, and engaged in “live tweets” during the airing of Discovery’s Mosquito. But most importantly, the committee had fun while engaging our followers with daily activities in mosquito control. Please take a moment and become a follower of our social media accounts: Facebook: @NJMCA Twitter: @NJMosquitoAssn Instagram: nj_mosquito LinkedIn: NJMCA mosquito Please send us anything you would like to promote on NJMCA social media. We are always looking for new ideas, community festivals, photos of your daily work, projects, and of course pictures of coworkers falling into a pond or woodland pool! We would love to share your stories. CONTACT : John Betz at [email protected] Use #NJMCA18 at this year’s meeting!! Volume XXX Number 1 2 NJMCA Newsletter County Corner A different county will be featured in each issue. If you would like to see your county highlighted here, please contact the Joe Pezzillo at [email protected] The Hunterdon County Mosquito & Vector Control Program By Tadhgh Rainey It’s hard to believe the Hunterdon County Mosquito & Vector Control Program is entering its 18th year of service since its inception in 2000. We are certainly in our juvenile stage of growth by New Jersey standards as the youngest of all 21 county mosquito abatement programs. We’ve managed to occupy a fairly unique niche in our community as compared with many other programs, and this has served us and our residents well over the years. Like most programs we offer the gamut of expected modern-day mosquito-control services – surveillance, source reduction, larviciding and adulticiding. These functions are performed by a small but dedicated and professional crew: field inspectors Sabrina Herron and Nicholas Cepparulo and entomologist Gary Donato (L to R). Haemaphysalis longicornis As anyone familiar with Hunterdon knows, we have a severe problem with Simuliid black flies. One of our functions over the years has included control of pest black fly species. And as things have evolved over time we have served as a local health education entity for other arthropods of public health importance. This has included bed bugs and ticks. For those who are not aware, Hunterdon has served as a focal point of Lyme disease activity for many years. As a recent example of invasive pest problems, we were thrust into an infestation of the exotic longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis, in 2017. This was the first recorded field introduction of this species in North America. Upon confirming its identification, our staff proceeded to quarantine and attempted to eliminate the tick from the county. We are certainly anxious to see if our efforts were successful. This is just another example of the ability of our program to adjust to the ever-changing needs of our community. In terms of mosquitoes, our species comprise what might be expected in the habitat of highlands and piedmont geology. Our primary pests include Aedes sticticus, Ae. trivitattus and Ae. vexans. We have a spattering of Aedes and Psorophora that come and go over the course of time, some of which cause significant nuisance. And as with most counties, for reasons that aren’t always clear we see blooms of various species of which their pest and disease transmission status are not known. For example, in 2017 we recorded record numbers and distribution of Culex erraticus, a mosquito known to the county but generally in low numbers. The county has a history of endemic West Nile virus activity but almost no eastern equine encephalitis virus. This is probably the result of the common occurrence of Cx. pipiens and limited habitat of Culiseta melanura in Hunterdon. Hunterdon County covers nearly 450 square miles, so this is a relatively large area by New Jersey standards. This is certainly a sizable jurisdiction to cover with our staff, but we’re very proud of the work we’ve accomplished in our brief history. We assume nothing will stay static as it never does. Although it’s difficult to predict the next oddity that might come our way I feel comfortable that we have made the investments necessary to address problems that might arise and look forward to the challenge of doing so. Volume XXX Number 1 3 NJMCA Newsletter UPCOMING MEETINGS Mark your calendars! MAMCA Mid Atlantic Mosquito Control Association February 12—February 14, 2018 AMCA American Mosquito Control Association February 26 - March 2, 2018 Kansas City, Missouri NJMCA New Jersey Mosquito NJMCA members networking at the Northeastern Mosquito Control Association meeting. Mike Hutchinson, Isik Unlu, Ilia Rochlin, Lisa Reed, Control Association Scott Crans, Robert Duryea, John Kranz and Teresa Duckworth March 13-16, 2018 Atlantic City, NJ John Kranz, 2nd Vice President and Eric Williges , President represent NJMCA at the Northeastern Mosquito Control Association Meeting in Plymouth Massachusetts. Volume XXX Number 1 4 NJMCA Newsletter NEWS FROM THE NORTHEAST January 31, 2018 The 2017 mosquito season ended with numerous mosquito pools positive for WNV, but little EEEV activity. Extended drought over the past few seasons have resulted in lower Cs. melanura activity, but recent field indications show this may not continue into 2018. We will be on guard for increased (back to historical levels) Cs. melanura and potential for subsequent EEEV isolations. With lower water levels in many areas one would expect lower populations of Cq.