The Compton Creek Mosquito Abatement District is pleased to announce the addition of another piece of equipment to our toolbox – a hand-held fogger for emergency mosquito spraying. This new piece of equipment, priced at $3,000, joins the District’s existing truck-mounted heavy-duty fogger and our 2007 Jeep with a larvicide tank – each has a...

The Compton Creek Mosquito Abatement District is pleased to announce the addition of another piece of equipment to our toolbox – a hand-held fogger for emergency mosquito spraying.

This new piece of equipment, priced at $3,000, joins the District’s existing truck-mounted heavy-duty fogger and our 2007 Jeep with a larvicide tank – each has a specific purpose in our fight against mosquitoes.

The truck-mounted sprayer is only installed on one of our pick-up trucks on an as needed basis.  Both the truck mounted and hand-held sprayers are used for adulticiding – killing flying mosquitoes. Whereas, the Jeep has a tank that sprays larvicides into the water, the much-preferred method of pesticide application due to its lower exposure to humans.

Our new addition, as well as our previous equipment, have all been purchased without the use of local taxpayer dollars. The heavy-duty fogger and our Jeep were both purchased with West Nile Virus funds provided by the Legislature in 2006. And, our new hand-held fogger was bought with Zika funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Compton Creek Mosquito Abatement District reserves the use of these foggers only as an option of last resort in public health emergencies – the fourth, and final, response step of our integrated mosquito management plan. In fact, our previous heavy-duty fogger has only been used once.

Although we hope to never encounter an emergency serious enough to warrant the use of foggers, we are grateful for the added defense and flexibility they offer our community.