Photo: Supplied.
FROM REDLAND CITY COUNCIL
Redlands Coast residents are urged to add mosquito prevention measures to their preparations for the summer storm season.
Redland City Council undertakes a year-round mosquito management program, monitoring known breeding sites and undertaking regular ground and aerial treatments using helicopters, quad bikes and drones.
During the peak mosquito breeding season from November to April, there are a number of simple steps residents can take to protect themselves and mosquito-proof their properties as much as possible.
You can reduce the number of mosquitoes around your home by ensuring your screens are in good condition and by emptying pooled water from items in your backyard, such as pot plant bases, blocked roof gutters, bird baths, sagging tarps or covers and old tyres.
Unscreened rainwater tanks and unused swimming pools can also breed mosquitoes, so keep pools well maintained and chlorinated and screen rainwater tanks if possible.
Mosquitoes are considered a designated pest under the Public Health Act 2005 and are known to transmit disease to humans, including Ross River Fever and Barmah Forest Virus.
While biting midges, which breed in tidal flats, don’t carry disease, they can also be a nuisance for some residents.
While the chemicals used for Council’s mosquito management treatments are target specific and are not harmful to people or the environment, Council does not treat for biting midges as the chemicals available to treat midge are general insecticides.
If these chemicals were used in the tidal flats, it would be harmful to aquatic life and other creatures important to our ecosystem.
The chemicals required to treat for biting midge are also not registered for use in the Moreton Bay Marine Park.
Residents can protect themselves from mosquitoes and biting midges while outdoors by wearing light coloured, long, loose-fitting clothing, using insect repellent, mosquito coils or plug-in insecticide burners, and by avoiding going outdoors at dusk and dawn where possible.
For more information on Redland City Council’s mosquito management program, visit Council’s website.
