Mosquitoes have been in the news lately, mostly as part of a warning since their numbers are higher than usual because of excessive standing water allowing them to breed more prolifically — at least here in the Northeast. One newscaster noted that we can expect a “bumper crop” of mosquitoes this year. Considering the extraordinary amount of rain we’ve been having in this region, we think the newscaster, for once, has it right.
If you haven’t been following the news for the last ten years or so, mosquitoes — while having always been known for carrying certain diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, and others — carry a couple of important diseases that have impacted US citizens and are a matter of great concern. Namely the West Nile virus and arboviral encephalitis. These are now serious concerns.
The CDC warns about West Nile virus:
West Nile virus is spread by infected mosquitoes, and can cause serious, life-altering and even fatal disease. Get outside and enjoy the summer, but remember that mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus are on the wing in many areas, so apply a mosquito repellent when you’re outdoors, especially from dusk to dawn. Check around your yard and dump out standing water where mosquitoes can lay their eggs, too. — The CDC
In light of this, we feel it’s important to pass along this information and help you control mosquitoes any way we can. This includes offering you techniques ranging from common-sense personal protection to the use of bat houses to lure bats which should help lessen your local mosquito population. Another control method, one that has been effective for many years in suppressing mosquito numbers, is by killing their larvae and making their breeding areas inhospitable. This can be accomplished by removing said areas (draining any standing water), by adding mosquito eating fish such as goldfish or the more aptly-named mosquito fish, Gambusia affinis. This can also be accomplished by using Mosquito Dunks in self-contained private bodies of water, which are a stable, dry form of Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti). It is these dunks that we have put on sale for a limited time.
This sale is effective until the ordering deadline on July 24th, 2009, and will apply to orders placed by phone (until closure), by fax at 603.942.8932 anytime, or made online. Please note, though, that the special pricing is good only for orders shipped no later than July 31st, 2009 (unless there is a delay on our end). To order this item online, here’s the entry for Mosquito Dunks in our shop.
If you want to stay up-to-date with fleeting offers like this, just visit our Bug Blog often to look for announcements, or just subscribe to our Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed. If you’re wondering what an RSS feed is, check out that help topic.
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: July 24th, 2009 at 4:16 pm →
This sale has been concluded. We will have others, though. To stay current on this sort of thing, since announcements will be made in our Bug Blog, subscribe to our RSS Feed.