Mosquitoes have not arrived in full force, yet

Despite getting inches of rain in the last few weeks, mosquitoes are not yet a problem in the Eunice city limits.
“People associate increased mosquito populations with wet weather,” said Eunice Wastewater Superintendent Brian Mallet, who oversees mosquito spraying within the city. “We have had plenty of rain but the mosquitoes haven’t arrived yet, and we have not started spraying. An infestation has not been a problem so far. For some fortunate reason, they are not here yet.”
“Once we start receiving a lot of calls letting us know that they are becoming a problem, we will start spraying. I talk to the mayor about it every week.”
While Mallet said there is no set day to begin and end spraying each year, the city does spray three times a week and up to four times, depending on the severity of the infestation, when spraying begins.
“We could move it up to four times a week if it’s bad, but three times is usually sufficient,” Mallett said. “The Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule of spraying could also vary. We can’t spray when it’s raining or when the wind is blowing more than 10 miles an hour.”
“It’s best to spray at night, too, because the mosquitoes aren’t flying around as much at night.”
The city uses one truck to spray, and spraying is typically done from dusk to around 10 to 10:30 p.m. The city is divided into a north and south side using Laurel Avenue as the dividing line, and each side is sprayed every other night of spraying. According to Harry Summerlin, a volunteer at Eunice City Hall, Acadia Parish sprays for mosquitoes near the ball parks on Sittig Road and in the area near Louisiana State University Eunice.
A tank of the mixture of mosquito insecticide and mineral oil, which makes the spray heavier and less likely to blow away, lasts a week when the city is being sprayed three times a week.
“Generally the mosquito season is spring through the summer,” Mallet said. “Some years, we have sprayed through the winter if the winter was mild and mosquitoes were abundant.”
“The mosquito season in Eunice is pretty typical. I haven’t had any bad years in the six years I’ve been here. Some days are worse than others, but it averages out over the year.”
Mallet also said there have been no problems with mosquito-born illnesses like West Nile or encephalitis in the City of Eunice, and he offered his top piece of advice to keep mosquitoes from becoming a problem around the home.
“The tip I tell everyone is to make sure they do not have outside containers that are holding water,” he said. “Rain can build up in buckets, old tires or in small containers, like a butter dish from when you went to give the dog some scraps. Drain mud puddles too, if you can. Eliminate anything that is holding water.”
“If you are going to be outside for an extended period of time, use some mosquito spray,” he added.
For those living outside out of town, mosquito spraying is done on an individual basis.
“On occasion, if we get complaints of an excessive amount of mosquitoes, we will spot spray on a case by case basis outside city limits,” said St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot. “We don’t spray parish wide because it’s not feasible to do it at that level. The parish is 1,000 square miles including some forested areas. It would be futile to do the whole parish, and spraying outside city limits doesn’t happen that often on case-by-case basis.”