The Northeast Massachusetts Mosquito Control and Wetlands Management District (NEMMC) has thirty-two subscribing municipalities, including Ipswich. Their mosquito control and surveillance program runs from the middle of the spring until the beginning of the fall, the time of the year most people are engaged in extensive outdoor activities.
NEMMC creates a Best Management Practice Plan (BMP) for each of the municipalities within its District annually. District control efforts focus primarily on adult mosquito surveillance, virus testing and aerial salt marsh larviciding.
The Best Management Practice Plan for Ipswich is reviewed and approved by the Board of Health annually. This year the 2020 Best Management Practice Plan will be reviewed at the March 9, 2020 Board of Health meeting. The meeting will be held in Room C of Town Hall, 25 Green Street and starts at 5:30pm. All are welcome to attend and share comments.
Every year the control measures in Ipswich’s BMP include ground larviciding, catch basin treatments, inspections and adulticiding. The 2019 draft BMP for Ipswich can be viewed at www.ipswichma.gov/publichealth under the resources tab or in the Public Health Office.
Larviciding: An insecticide is applied into shallow water to control mosquitoes in their aquatic stages and prevent emergence as adult mosquitoes.
Catch Basin Treatments: An insecticide is applied to a catch basin, storm water structure, etc. to control mosquitoes in there aquatic stages and prevent emergences as adult mosquitoes.
Inspections: Inspections are done upon request. A resident can contact the Public Health Office and provide information regarding their particular area of concern. NEMMC does a site visit to determine if there are natural or artificial mosquito breeding areas that can be treated.
Adulticiding: The District uses a system called Ultra Low Volume (ULV) for ground adulticiding applications. ULV is designed to dispense very small amounts of pesticides over a large area. While this is a cost effective means of reducing mosquito populations on a large scale, it only affects those mosquitoes present at the time of the application and repeated applications are sometimes necessary in some areas to sustain the initial reduction in the mosquito population.
Notifications regarding adulticiding will be disseminated via the town website and the town’s notification system.
If you are not already signed up to receive notifications, you can sign up by going to the town’s website www.ipswichma.gov and clicking on the Notify Me/Alerts link on the home page.
If you have any questions, contact Colleen E. Fermon, Director of Public Health, at 978-356-6606 or by email at colleenf@ipswichma.gov