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Mosquitos Threaten Delaware's Pest Control Budget

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DOVER, Del. (AP) - A mosquito boom due to the wet spring and summer is threatening to deplete Delaware's budget for pest control.

The Wilmington News Journal reports that much of the $2 million pest control budget is gone just three months into the fiscal year.

Bill Meredith, the mosquito control administrator for the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, says record rains have led to a tripling of pesticide ground-fogging efforts. Also aerial spraying has quadrupled in recent months.

Meredith says the summer rains produced new broods of mosquitoes every few days. Public complaints about the mosquito boom have multiplied.

Officials say they had little alternative to spraying because of concerns over West Nile virus and other diseases.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.