Door-hanger helpers sought - Keys Action to Break the Cycle of Dengue Community Clean-Up Weekend

Lots of volunteers are sought to place 10,000 door-hangers across the island of Key West April 15 to 17, the Keys Action to Break the Cycle of Dengue Community Clean-Up Weekend.

The door-hanger encourages property owners to eliminate standing water and cover or turn upside-down any containers that can collect water from rain, sprinklers, hoses and other sources.

For more information or to volunteer, call 305-809-5612 or just show up at the Gato Building, 1100 Simonton St., at any of the following dates and times: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 15; 9 a.m. to noon April 16; or noon to 4 p.m. April 17.

Mosquito Control's daunting job

Each week, like clockwork, a Mosquito Control employee stops at my house and sets up a mosquito trap; the next day, she comes back to collect the trap and see what it contains. Apparently this week she found plenty, because this morning there were FOUR M.C. employees scouring the immediate neighborhood to find possible breeding sites. They told me that while the trap caught only two Aedes aegypti mosquitoes (the dengue fever vector), there were 150 Culex quinquifasciatus mosquitoes inside the trap. Obviously, the former will be able to breed wherever the latter is, so M.C. wants to find those places before rainy season.

One suspected place was my cistern, but when checked, it was found to be "clean." I know my gutters are OK because they have rusted through in the low places where water used to collect. I cannot help but wonder if breeding isn't going on in the cemtery. M.C's response to my query always is the same, "We put tablets in every flower vase once a month." But, could there be a cement burial container that is cracked and holding water in the cemetery somewhere near my house?

It is said that the city once smashed in many of the cisterns in town, so maybe there is one such cistern under a neighbor's house that the current owner knows nothing about. Mosquito Control is doing a terrific job trying to figure all of this out, so please be helpful whenever its employees are poking around your house.

Thanks, Rob Sprogell