To the editor:

I've been told numerous times this past summer this past summer "if you could just give these people a month of respite, they would be so happy." As your Vector Control director, my job is to see that your summers are not only tolerable, but safe from these "flying hordes" as well.

This year was a blockbuster to say the least. With the extended flooding of the river bottoms came unbelievable numbers of floodwater mosquitoes. I came from a place where a "bad year" produced trap counts of 3,000 per trap and here they exceeded 24,000. At times, people couldn't even venture outside in their yards without inhaling and swallowing them.

Even during the heat of the day when you'd normally be safe, you were swarmed if you had to be out. And the Vector Control crew had to be out, working around the clock all summer, often in places you'd never dream of going.

In addition to the standard practices of treating, i.e., larviciding and adulticiding within and directly around the city, we got very aggressive on the river bottomlands south of town from Legion Park west to include all of the Lewis and Clark WPA. With aerial applications running two to three days per week, we applied tons of larvicide in an attempt to keep a perimeter, or "dead zone" around the city. We worked it hard until funds ran short. Then pulled back into the city, concentrating on the public places and events, keeping continuous barrier spray applications while "fogging" evenings and mornings. Even then, successive waves of the floodwater mosquitoes from upstream and down daily invaded the city.

Quite simply, we need a larger perimeter.

The corps, as well as the state Game and Fish, have been most helpful as far as letting me know when they raise and lower their ponds. Landowners have been very gracious in providing us access to otherwise inaccessible areas. The chamber and parks department kept me abreast of upcoming outdoor events so we could "pretreat" those areas. I also owe all of you a thank you for your suggestions, comments and keeping your areas free of mosquito-breeding sites.

We all know the stories of how people have to work with outdated budgets and equipment, holding onto qualified help and dealing with rising costs. There will be a lot said in the upcoming month on the specifics, so I won't bore you with them here. Just let me say Vector Control is no exception.

Next year, we have a chance of getting help from the Air Force in the form of larviciding an additional 10,000 acres of bottomland in addition to what we now treat as well as aerial adulticiding (fogging). Pray to God that we can get this.

I also see a need to apply barrie sprays along the railways which up to now has been a safe harbor for mosquitoes on their way up the river. County residents and businesses outside the city limits need to be fogged as well, at least during the worst of these outbreaks.

There's much to do if we're to make a "bad year" tolerable and a good one idyllic here. I for one want to see you all enjoying your summers. To have visiting friends and children go back with fond memories of Williston and to eventually lost the stigma attached to our town. As director, I'll be doing my level best with what I have to make this happen.

There are many important decisions to be made next month at the voting booths. One of them involves how the future of your Vector Control Program will be run. One thing is for sure, if we don't make and changes, it will be right back to "business as usual."

Francis Bosch

Williston Vector Control District director