Vector Control
What We Do
Department Head: Durrell Hagood
The Williams County Vector Control District #1 was established in 1967 and is responsible for decreasing the presence of vector and nuisance mosquitoes to prevent vector borne disease transmission and increasing the quality of life for people in the region. The department is governed by the Williams County Vector Control Board.
5/29/2024
I’m excited for my first season with the Williams County Vector Control District. I bring more than 20 years of industry experience, most recently working with one of the world’s largest mosquito control operations, Lee County Mosquito Control in Florida. In Lee County, I trained employees in Integrated Pest Management techniques, insect morphology, physiology, arbovirus relationships, and managed the operation of ground based and aerial larvicide operations.
I started with Williams County in November 2023 and have been spending the past few months researching the area, calibrating equipment, updating operational plans, and hiring seasonal employees. The Vector team has already hit the ground running this season, monitoring breeding sites and adult populations. We are also currently monitoring water levels and release rates from the Fort Peck dam in anticipation of a river rise in June, which will increase breeding grounds.
Laboratory work has begun to verify efficacy rates of larvicide products being used this season. Lab testing for arboviruses such as West Nile Virus will take place throughout the season on samples of Culex tarsalis mosquitoes collected from CDC light traps located throughout the District.
Our goal as a District is to proactively monitor mosquito activity and emphasize the use of larvicides to minimize the adult population pre-hatch. Larvicide operations have been ongoing in the Williston, Trenton, and Ray areas since the third week in April and the US Air Force Reserve (USAFR) will fly their larvicide mission along the Missouri River between May 29 and June 6, weather and conditions permitting. The USAFR is also anticipated to return later this summer to perform adulticide missions in July and August. The USAFR missions are complementary to the work the District does throughout the season.
So far, we have seen a relatively low count of adult mosquitoes, but rainfall over the past few weeks has produced standing water throughout the district, which has led to a considerable number of mosquito larvae. The majority of larvicide treatments conducted so far have been aerial applications with Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) as well as ground treatments with backpack spreaders; we have also conducted some wide-area larvicide treatments via helicopter. By using UAS, we are able to treat larvae in areas that are inaccessible by ground or manned aircraft.
Adulticide operations to target adult mosquitoes will be dictated by the amount of, and types of species, that are collected in our traps. Adulticide missions consist of ground-based applications with trucks as well as aerial applications with fixed winged aircraft. These operations occur during the peak of mosquito activity, which is typically from dusk until approximately 3 hours after dark.
Stay up to date on Vector Control activities here on our website and the Williams County Facebook page. Contact us with questions any time.
-Durrell Hagood