Mosquito Spraying – July 30, 2018

The PA Department of Environmental Protection will be initiating an aerial mosquito larval control application on Monday, July 30, 2018 in portions of your municipality. This control event is in response to the large portions of Dauphin County that have recently received heavy rainfall and may have experienced flooding as a result of that rainfall. The spraying area will be limited to areas near or around the Swatara Creek Watershed and Susquehanna River Basin.

This operation will begin at 7:00am and will last through the daylight hours. The application will include flights in Cumberland, Dauphin and Lebanon Counties. The helicopter will be a Blue and Grey Bell 206 with tail number N653HA. Helicopter Applicators Inc., who will be conducting the application, will be dispersing Vectobac GS, which is a Bti product manufactured by Valent Biosciences. Bti is short for Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis, which is a bacterial larvicide, not a chemical, and is used to control larval mosquitoes. Vectobac GS is a bacterial product imbedded on corn cob granules. The helicopter will fly low near tree top level and release Vectobac GS over stagnant water containing larval mosquitoes. The product is released from the corn cob granules upon reaching the water and will kill mosquito larval when ingested.