Shrewsbury Getting 'Enhanced' Spraying For EEE Mosquitoes

SHREWSBURY, MA — A local anti-mosquito program to reduce the spread of Eastern Equine Encephalitis will kick into gear on Monday with an "enhanced larval control operation" in the area.

Over the five days beginning Monday, the Central Massachusetts Mosquito Control Project will spray a special bacterium across wetlands in a dozen cities and towns whose EEE risk rose to critical levels in 2019.

The target of the campaign will be the Coquillettidia perturbans mosquito species. The larvae attach to plants, unlike other species whose larvae float freely in water. That makes usual larval control products like Bti ineffective.

"Their larvae attach to the root systems of emergent vegetation such as cattails, breathing air through the root system of the plant. Since these larvae do not freely float looking for food like other mosquito species, the Bti bacteria are less available for consumption by the larvae," the mosquito control project said in a bulletin.

To target the Cq perturbans, the mosquito control project will use a product called Natular, which poses a minimal risk to mammals, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The product will be applied in a relatively small area — about 1,500 acres across a wide area between Ashland and Northbridge.

Massachusetts bore the brunt of the 2019 EEE outbreak in the Northeast, which sickened 34 people and killed 12. Experts still don't know why the 2019 outbreak happened.

You can see maps showing where the product will be sprayed in your community at these links:

• Ashland
• Grafton
• Holliston
• Hopedale
• Hopkinton
• Marlborough
• Milford
• Northborough
• Northbridge
• Shrewsbury
• Southborough
• Westborough