A recent report (excerpts below) discusses the existence of thousands of abandonded pools and ponds in New Orleans which serve as a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The article while focusing on actions taken by the New Orleans Mosquito and Termite Control Board also discusses the potential health threat if not addressed.

Bothersome bugs are breeding in abandoned pools throughout the city

Steve Sackett knelt beside the concrete fountain, brought his face within an inch of the water and peered into its algae-stained depths.

"Yep, we've got pupae," Sackett said with the zeal of a prospector panning for nuggets of gold. "Hundreds of 'em. In another 24 hours, they'll hatch and be ready for a bloodbath."

Sackett couldn't hide his inveterate enthusiasm, but there was no mistaking it for joy. Mosquito larvae are the bane of his existence, as research entomologist for the New Orleans Mosquito and Termite Control Board.

The stagnant water Sackett was checking out, in a weed-infested yard along Bayou St. John, was one of thousands of abandoned pools and ponds in the New Orleans area -- each of them transformed by post-Katrina neglect into a fertile mosquito-breeding tank.

"This is just a little itty-bitty pool, and it could have thousands of mosquito larvae in there," he said, shaking his tanned, bespectacled head. "Multiply this by X. How big is X? I don't know."

Emerging threat

Mosquito infestation wasn't a big concern for New Orleanians when the levees breached and the canal floodwalls collapsed Aug. 29, inundating almost 80 percent of the metropolitan area and killing more than 1,000 people. When the city was drained a few weeks later, few considered the ramifications of the standing water that had collected in countless pools, fountains and troughs.

Few, that is, except Sackett.

Cases of West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne infections such as encephalitis have declined annually since 2002, when there were 329 cases and 25 deaths statewide. And Hurricanes Katrina and Rita initially helped keep those counts down by flushing out the stagnant areas where mosquitoes breed, washing away larvae and killing or dispersing the birds that carry the viruses after mosquitoes bite them.

But now, as the weather begins to warm and the stagnant pools fester, mosquitoes once again have begun to lay eggs. And Sackett warns the mosquitoes -- and the incidents of diseases they carry -- are about to get much worse.

"This is what I do," he said. "I knew right away we had a monumental problem on our hands."

To make things worse, the city has had little money or manpower to help stave off the problem. Like most of the city's departments, the Mosquito Control Board's staff and budget were gutted after Katrina. Sackett was even forced to use his own money to pay for some expenses.

Fortunately, Sackett has found allies in his battle against mosquitoes. Volunteers with Operation Blessing, a faith-based nonprofit agency that has established a headquarters in Slidell, accompanied him on his rounds. Allies of another sort swam in a water-filled plastic bag hanging from his right hand: the mosquitofish.

The slender guppylike fish are the most effective biological mosquito control agents on Earth. Each minnow -- they run between an inch or two in length -- can gobble as many 100 mosquito larvae a day.

By happenstance, a sympathetic FEMA employee directed him to Operation Blessing International, which had established a sprawling headquarters in an abandoned strip mall parking lot in Slidell. The humanitarian organization, founded in 1978 by Pat Robertson, is based in Virginia Beach, Va., and specializes in disaster relief. That usually entails providing meals, home repairs and health care: not mosquito control.

But Bill Horan, the agency's president and chief operating officer, jumped at the chance to help when Sackett called three weeks ago.

"This was a desperate problem, a major health threat for the population," Horan said. "Most of these people aren't living behind triple-glazed glass. They're living in FEMA trailers and gutted homes. They're more apt to be bitten than people in a normal community."

As many as 10,000 pools

For Sackett, Operation Blessing has lived up to its name. In addition to its deep pockets, the group made available dozens of volunteer workers. The mostly high school and college-age student workers accompany Mosquito Board officials on biweekly excursions to the city's most neglected neighborhoods.

They operate with lists of targeted pools compiled by Sackett and his staff, most of which were identified from aerial photos or discovered during door-to-door inspections by the Mosquito Board after the storm.

In all, Sackett estimates there are 5,000 to 10,000 abandoned or neglected pools in Orleans Parish. Although only about 10 percent of the pools are populated by mosquito larvae, he said there could be more infestation as the weather warms. And one pool alone can produce tens of thousands of mosquitoes.

On Tuesday, the group inspected six pools in a half-block area of Bancroft Boulevard in Gentilly, a neighborhood sandwiched by Bayou St. John and the London Avenue Canal. The area was badly flooded after the storm. Most of the homes have been gutted but appeared to be unoccupied. The pools, however, remained largely untouched.

Workers treat the pools with a larvacide in addition to the mosquitofish.

"Face it," Sackett said, "these people have more important things on their minds than mosquito control. Mosquito control is far down the list until they start being bitten. Then they call us."

"This is a major potential health threat, and we need to get this thing done yesterday," Sackett said. "Some people are never coming back, and these pools are going to be here eternally."

To view the full article please click on the following link.

Hurricane Katrina Abandoned Pools and Mosquito Infestation