City traps 320,000 mozzies

THE Gold Coast’s most unwanted visitor has finally lost their buzz.

About 320,000 mosquitoes were trapped in the six months to March after the pest dined on perfect summer conditions of rain and humidity.

Nearly one third were trapped in March alone with each of the Gold Coast City Council’s 24 traps having around 4000 mosquitoes, about 1000 more than the longterm average for that month.

Mosquito expert and Griffith University Emeritus professor Patricia Dale said: “Numbers will fluctuate if there have been good breeding seasons which means it has been hot or wet.

“When the weather is warm you will see mosquitos move through their life cycle in five or six days.” The typical life cycle is up to two weeks.

Each year the council treats 23,000 hectares of mosquitobreeding land across the city. Popular breeding locations are salt marshes such as those in Coombabah and Coomera.

No dengue fever cases were recorded in the region in the six months to the end of March. Eight cases were reported by Coast hospitals from people who had travelled from other countries.

About 150 complaints were made to the council about mosquitoes in the six-month period.

The spike in trappings in March was sparked by significant rainfall and warm weather in February.

Mudgeeraba councillor Glenn Tozer, who represents the city on the Regional Mosquito Management Group, said treatment programs had made a major dent in the mosquito population. “We did a big spray activity before the Games and that meant we had a relatively low number of mosquito incidents,” he said.

Hinterland residents whose properties have bodies of water receive free native fish which consume mosquitos.