(CNS): Mosquito and Research Control Unit Director Dr Alan Wheeler has blamed the worst mosquito problems for two decades on a number of natural factors, such as COVID-19 and Tropical Storm Grace, but not the management issues that have surrounded the MRCU over the last two years. Wheeler, who was appointed as director in July this year, said that they were working hard to tackle the surge in the black salt march species causing the current trouble.
However, the MRCU had been dealing with a number of problems under the leadership of Dr Jim McNelly, who led the unit from March 2018 to March 2021. He left under a cloud, after his staff sent a letter to the ministry claiming that, rather than the tried and tested methods of mosquito control that Cayman had deployed to significant success, he had switched to methods that had contributed to the widespread rise in black salt marsh mosquitoes and the disease-carrying Aedes aegypti.
When Dr Wheeler appeared on Radio Cayman’s For the Record last week, he apologised for the outbreak of the swamp species and described the activities currently underway. He said the surge in the marsh mosquito was largely a result of the reduced control efforts last year during the pandemic, high tides both last year and this, followed by back to back storms over the last month that created flooding in the wetlands.
One man-made problem impacting the control of swamp and marsh mosquitoes that Dr Wheeler did identify was development, which is cutting...
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