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Brooks City-Base entomologists wage war against mosquitoes

  • Published
  • By Elizabeth Castillo
  • 311th Human Systems Wing
BROOKS CITY-BASE, Texas (AFMCNS) --  The aftermath of Hurricane Rita not only brought devastation to homes and buildings in East Texas, but swarms of potentially harmful mosquitoes. Entomologists from Brooks City-Base tracked, counted and with the help of an aerial spray squad, waged a private battle against the irritating insects. Brooks C-B is part of Air Force Materiel Command, which provides the Air Force with war-fighting capabilities on time and on cost. AFMC is headquartered at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

During an 11-day mission, entomologists surveyed and scoured over two million acres of land in search of mosquito infestation due to the heavy rains brought on by Hurricane Rita.

These entomologists worked rigorously to survey and calculate which areas of East Texas needed to be sprayed for mosquitoes, using techniques that varied from employing high-tech larva testing equipment to simply standing in a mosquito "hot spot" and counting the number of mosquitoes landing on their bodies.

"The Center for Disease Control determined that a certain part of Texas where Rita had hit needed mosquito control," said 1st Lt. Timothy Davis, operational entomology course director. "The CDC determined that four counties were at a potential high risk and Brooks was happy to help and send its entomologists."

Four East Texas counties -- Newton, Jasper, Hardin and Liberty -- were surveyed by Brooks' entomologists tracking 500-600 miles a day over a six-day period. After completion of surveillance, the counties were found to be in need of mosquito spraying.

The 910th Airlift Wing, Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio, was already spraying New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina when the flight was reassigned to spray in East Texas. A trio of Brooks entomologists -- 1st Lt. Wes Walker and 1st Lt. David Sanders, from the Air Force Research Laboratory, and Dr. Chad McHugh, Air Force Institute of Operational Health -- were sent to be ground support for the aerial squad.

"After Hurricane Rita came ashore in Southeastern Texas, it really did some damage on the infrastructure," said Lieutenant Walker. "A lot of the houses had roofs taken out and windows broken, so even if they were habitable, the mosquitoes were still a factor. Not only are mosquitoes a nuisance, they are carriers of diseases."

Along with high-tech testing methods used to determine the amount of larva sitting in pools of water and traps set to catch and later count mosquitoes, entomologists used a less technical, yet painful approach of determining the need for mosquito control. The entomologists would stand for one minute in a location where mosquitoes are more likely to inhabit, and wait to see how many mosquitoes landed on their clothing.

"Anything over 10 mosquitoes is bad, and in a lot of the areas, there were between 30 and 80," said Lieutenant Walker.

After determining the need for mosquito control, the team of entomologists was ready for the next mission of being ground support for the aerial squad. The team was responsible for relaying wind readings and because the planes fly as low as 200 feet, the entomologists also had to make the pilots aware of high power lines and other towers.

The damage to the infrastructure caused some unintended obstacles for the entomologists as they tried to communicate with the aerial squad who was flying out of Duke Field, Fla.

"We would take wind readings for them and call it back to their headquarters, who would then radio it up to the plane that was over us," said Lieutenant Walker. "Actually, when we were talking to the plane, they may be flying over us but we were calling Florida and Florida was calling back even though the plane was within eyesight of us."

The pesticide used in the spraying was Dibrom concentrate, which is absolutely harmless to humans or animals yet extremely effective in killing adult mosquitoes. Though the solution is not harmful to plants, animals or humans, it is potentially dangerous towards bees and bee hives.

While surveying the areas to be sprayed, the entomologists found that a man living in an area that was to be sprayed had a bee hive colony. They quickly used their communication sources to contact the plane that was already in flight to make them aware of the bee farm. With great precision, the plane was able to release the trigger, and spare the hives.

Upon completion of the spraying mission, the team of entomologists had to again survey the sprayed areas to test the success of the spraying.

"We knew what it looked like before the spray, and then we would go see what it looked like after," said Lieutenant Walker. "It was complete success across the board, dropping down to zero and one mosquito landing on you in places where (previously) they were lifting you off the ground."

As the mission came to a successful halt, the efforts of the Air Force and Brooks entomologists were seen in the fewer amounts of flying nuisances in the sprayed areas. The four counties will now be able to continue to build and restore their towns without the added irritation of swarming mosquitoes potentially carrying harmful diseases.

"The aerial spray mission is very important in any sort of relief effort and we are very lucky to have that in the United States," said Lieutenant Davis. "That's why we are entomologists in the Air Force -- there to help out. It is good to get involved in those things."