Council bites back in war on mozzies

TORRENTIAL rains and high tides have triggered a new mosquito threat to the city, prompting authorities to order urgent spraying across the Gold Coast.

The fogging and spraying will start in the northern corridor early today as Gold Coast City Council warns there will be more mozzie infestations this week.

Division 4 councillor Kristyn Boulton said council officers had been working around the clock at the weekend to identify the worst-affected suburbs. These include Coombabah, Helensvale, Paradise Point and others north of the city.

“We have to start all over again with our spraying schedule,” she said. “We have large areas of freshwater across the city after the recent sustained, heavy rainfall, which only cleared early on Friday.”

Last week, the city had also experienced high tides which had resulted in an inundation of mozzies in saltmarsh areas.

“This, in conjunction with warm, humid weather will result in a further increase in the next seven to 10 days of mosquitoes across many suburbs, particularly in the northern divisions,” she warned.

“I suspect things will get worse in the next two weeks but they should improve as our treatments start to take effect.

“Unfortunately, the mozzies seem to be bigger than ever before and I experienced this when our family were swarmed by mosquitoes at Coombabah on Saturday and we had to retreat,” she said.

Paradise Point residents reported huge numbers of mozzies at the weekend and Arlene Lee, of Milton Ave, said she had never seen anything like it.

“As soon as I step outside my apartment, there are scores of them buzzing around,” she said. “I couldn’t even shake them off when I went walking along the Broadwater. There are so many of them and they seem bigger after all the rain.”

Mitchell Hermann, of Muscovey Ave, said he too was taken aback by the infestation.

“Our garden is infested with them – even after we’ve emptied water from all our pots and containers outside,” he said.

A council spokesman said pest management teams had been operating a control program involving aerial, ground and fogging treatments to reduce adult mozzie numbers and prevent further breeding.

“Unfortunately, the rainfall over the last week has hampered our ability to complete these programs effectively,” he said, adding treatments would start today around Coombabah and Helensvale before moving north to Jacobs Well and south to Mermaid Waters.