The bad news.....
... The outbreak is expected to last at least a few more months.
... Mosquito repellant and mosquito controls are not available in stores most of the time, leaving most people with poor protection.
... I'm located in one of the high risk areas.
... It's raining a lot, making it difficult to eliminate mosquito breeding areas.
The good news......
... I managed to buy two cans of Deep Woods Off today.
... I managed to buy several containers of mosquito control granules via Amazon.com.
Residents here generally believe that the county is ineffective in combating this problem. The county is doing a lot of "talk story" and shutting the barn door after the horse got out.....like in talking about the severe mosquito problem in and around the schools but just now (this coming week) getting around to doing something about it now that many children are testing positive for dengue. Plus lots of community informative talks, but no area mosquito control or spraying.
I saw in the news today that authorities announced that tourists need not change their plans and thus avoid coming to Hawaii. But I see that 13 tourists have caught dengue so far, that we know of. Heaven knows how many went home, got sick, and thought they had the flu. I suppose the authorities feel that the tourist dollars are far more important than tourist health. Residents are saying, "If the government thinks that tourists should still come here, then why doesn't Vector Control fog all the mosquito infested beaches and areas to kill the mosquitos?" Um, good point. Perhaps the fogging should have begun weeks, no change that to, months ago. It's November now and the health department knew of the problem in September.
We're being diligent about mosquito control and avoiding mosquito bites. But it's sometimes difficult to avoid the buggers. So we now travel with a spray can of mosquito repellant so that we have it on hand if we see the little stealth biters. On my own homestead I've been maintaining my baited mosquito killing mini ponds in order to kill the future generations. I walk the property after each rain, eliminating any standing water. This weekend I plan to go on a search & destroy mission on some neighboring properties where the owners are absentee owners.
One of the blog's readers sent me instructions on making a simple homemade mosquito trap. One empty two liter soda bottle, black tape, warm water, yeast, and sugar. I have no idea if it will work, but it's surely worth a try. I'll be making several of them this weekend. Guess I'll be dumpster diving for those soda bottles!
Unless the authorities get aggressive in controlling mosquitos, get insistent on eliminating mosquito breeding grounds, I see this dengue fever outbreak continuing until the next drought. There is suppose to be a big El Niño event right now, though we haven't seen the drought that usually accompanies one. Personally, I'm praying for 90 days of zero rain. That seems to be our best bet for ending this epidemic.
With regard to the government and tourists.... didn't they make a movie about this? Oh yeah, I think it was called "Jaws".
ReplyDeleteAnd God created the small to confound the wise....
I did not know about this, what an ordeal for you!
ReplyDeleteI think it is a common misconception that talking about something is doing something. Of course I don't get that because hot air rarely blows real life problems away.