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Mosquito spraying begins in Gloucester

Mosquito numbers warranted the first adulticide spraying of the year in Gloucester Monday night, said Jim Diggs, director of buildings and grounds and head of the mosquito control program.

Diggs said that the spraying from two trucks was based on counts taken by drivers and from mosquito traps in the mosquito control zones. The first areas sprayed this year were Roanes and Naxera.

Diggs said that, weather permitting, he plans to have mosquito control crews on the road Monday through Friday, roughly from 6-11 p.m., as long as the mosquito counts merit. In years past, he said, mosquito spraying was done as late as the week before Thanksgiving.

“A cool spring helped hold down the mosquitoes,” Diggs said, but more recent hot and wet weather have brought out lots of mosquitoes. “We don’t have much say in the weather.”

Earlier in the spring, mosquito control crews used larviciding, which he has found to be an effective technique which entails placing chemica...

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