City Government - Regular Meeting

And you can tell this is a riveting topic for the public. So city manager, were you going to introduce anything?

I saw you jump up and sit down.

So the first thing we'll do is public comment on non-agenda items. Well, Director Bork is here.

Is he not coming?

No, no, okay. No public comment. So next we will begin the work session. And it is on mosquito control update. Very good. And I don't have these people on my agenda. So if you can introduce them.

Mayor and Council, this is our annual report on the mosquito control operations. Tonight's report will be provided by Adam Ross, who is our mosquito control supervisor, and Taylor Albright, who is our mosquito control equipment operator. See your text. Senior Tech. So they're here to present to you on the projected outcomes of... What is Taylor's last name again? Taylor Albright. Oh, Albright. Thank you.

Welcome, Adam and Taylor.

Hi. So...

Today I'll be going over our mosquito control program, our goals, our control resources, and how we work with the public and what's expected for this year. So our main goal over the course of the season is prevention of West Nile virus infection and then reduction in nuisance populations throughout the city. So at this time, our control resources are, we have two full-time employees year-round. Taylor is one, and then we have Jace, who's the other, and then there is me, which, and then we have our seasonal workers.

We have two to three night fogging drivers, two larval surveillance drivers,

technicians, we have our ATV and foot applications, one adult surveillance technician, and trap collection and speciation. And then we have our aerial application with cop air, larvacide planned this year for June 10th, and then we have another one for adults aside for later in June, and then our second as needed by population counts throughout the season.

And then update on the larvacite that will be this Friday, not Wednesday.

So our control area is everything within the city limits.

And then we also have quite a bit of landowner areas that we do outside of the city.

Approximately 70,000 acres adjacent to the city that we do as well. Um, go ahead.

Um, I'm just, is it okay if we ask questions as we go along? Yeah, no, that's okay. Um, so the people outside, uh, the city limits in the rural area, uh, I'm wondering, do they, um, contract with you with the city or does it provide such a benefit to eliminate that, that it's something that we need to do?

So with our program, we have 7,000 acres that we are including in our pavement district that we treat with larviciding and then we have our adult siding through the aerial. We also have the Big Laramie and Little Laramie mosquito districts. They do one adult side in conjunction with our very first one. We try to do it around the same time, around late June. And then outside of that, it's just our benefit of most of our areas that we go out. The furthest we go west is Hart Branch, and the furthest north we go is about two, a little past the Antelope Gap area.

Honorable Mayor, before we go to Councilor Dougherty, if I could add to that. I just actually asked this question the other day of Taylor related to landowner permission. And we don't currently treat over anybody that we don't have any landowner permission for. And so they have, in past years or even currently updated this year, submitted that they would like us to do treatment over their ranches, which we, of course, the Monolith and the Hart Ranch and the Bath Ranch or the city's ranches, right, which we give permission to. And then there are seven or eight other ranches that you guys access, if that's correct.

We have a total of 30 private landowners on average every year. We do send out access slips every year to them, just to see if they still own the properties or if they still like to work with us.

As properties get sold, we try to work with the new landowners or landowners adjacent to it.

But on average, we float around 30 large, eight large ranches and then about 22 smaller properties.

Councilor Doherty?

So does everything, it's just north and west because? because the wind always blows in one direction or is it because there isn't enough wetland to the east of this?

So we also go south all the way out to Soldier Springs property. We do have access to some areas to the east, but due to lack of mosquito habitats and then just the terrain, it's a lot harder to treat on the east side of town once we start getting towards the mountains.

Councilor Schimley.

Thank you, Mayor. I know you indicated that there would be a second aerial application in late June.

I'm sure that's already been scheduled because it's very difficult to schedule aerial applications.

I was thinking, if possible, could we push it up to like the 3rd of July so that the Washington Park and there's so many people that come to Freedom as a Birthday and also Fire in the Sky. A lot of people go out of doors on that day. And I've noticed in the past that Washington Park has been almost Boy, the mosquitoes. But I don't know what the plan is for the aerial application or if that's something you schedule around for them as a birthday or not.

We have not fully scheduled it yet. Next week we will be starting talking with the Big Laramie and Little Laramie districts. We do try to plan it for about two to three days before the 4th of July because it is a big holiday that we like everyone to be. go outside and enjoy everything. And so we'll be around then. And then also with Freedom as a Birthday, we do a all natural barrier spray through the park as well as an additional for any large events that the city hosts.

Follow up. Thank you, Mayor. One other, I've had... I go to softball games and I notice that there's people swatting mosquitoes. Do you aerial spray these ballparks prior to the games that are scheduled in the evenings?

The ballparks, we are included with our parks and trails routes for our adult fogging schedules. So they are normally performed in conjunction with our south and west routes. As most of our ballparks are already in the north, they have effects just from also driving around on the north. Does that answer your question?

If I could add some to that line of questioning before we move on. I think it's important to remember that mosquito control is not based off of events or times exactly. The integrated pest management system is built around scientific evidence of population control, which Adam had noticed earlier. We check trap counts, we look at speciation, we see what's coming in, and we treat based off of that data that tells us when the best time is to hit those mosquitoes. As much as I would love to say, hey, yeah, let's aerial fog before Freedom has a birthday, we don't know what the populations are going to be like in that time. So we just have to watch and see what happens with the data that comes in. and make sure that when we do do these aerial applications, which are somewhat pricey, that they have the best bang for the buck and have the most efficacy as we move forward. So that's really important to remember. One other thing to note is that we do not fog over the city limits. or we do not aerial spray over the city limits. That all city limit mosquito control is through the fogging operation. And the fogging operation is really on a tri-city, and you guys might have this in your presentation, on a tri-city spectrum that they rotate through pending weather conditions and about stops so that they can get to that point.

And I have one more councilor question. Councilor Newman.

Is there like somewhere on the city website they can get ahold of you guys or how do they how does somebody sign up for this program? so we have

Our program is covered by the mosquito fee. And so if your property, you are paying the mosquito fee, we are in your area. If you feel like you are paying the fee and we have not got to you, please contact us at our department. If you are outside of city limits, it's best to figure out whether you're in the Big Laramie and Little Laramie districts and try to find their contact information. If you can't find their contact information, please contact us and we will get you in hold with those districts.

Thank you. Continue. Sorry for all the questions. We're very curious.

So next, we have our larval control here. We have over 90 areas checked by foot where we're dipping for larval counts to apply our larvicides in these water areas, wash-down areas throughout the city. The areas are optimally checked once a week and treated. Treatments this year will be accomplished with BTI, liquid or granular, or weekly treatments with a platform of... that supplies 150 days of treatment, alpha-10 granular and briquette for 20 to 30 day control or larvacite oil for pupil control when necessary if pupil populations are higher.

Just to add on to that, the reason why we try to check once a week is the mosquito life cycle from an egg to an adult on average is seven days.

So as long as we are getting to the area within seven days, or if we were using L-tissue, which provides 30 days treatment, as long as we return within 30 days, we're making sure we're keeping those larval populations down. Larval control is the best way to control mosquito populations. It's often the...

hidden aspect, because a lot of people don't see us, because most of our areas are outside of town, or if they are in town, their quick stop-ins go out. It's not loud, it's not flashy like our trucks, so it is occasionally overlooked. This is our number one way to help control mosquito populations.

Councilor Doherty.

For the public, would you remind people what BTI, Bacillus, and why that's preferred?

BTI stands for Bacteria Therogenesis Aurelianus, is an all-natural soil bacteria that only affects dipterian species, so that's blackfly, gnats, and mosquito larvae.

It won't affect any other species in the water. Our alpha sed is a methoprene product. It's an insect growth regulator. As larvae are going through their four stages of growth, they are releasing a hormone into the water. And then what we're doing with the alpha sed is we're

Making it look like that level is still high, so when they turn to a pupa, they are turning at the wrong stage, and so then they won't become viable adults when they finally become adults.

If I could ask, could you guys describe, you already kind of described, but if I understand, they work the BTI and the opposite works through the gut of the mosquito. And then what is the reason for the larvacite oil?

So how BTI does work is the reason why it works on deuterium species and others is that they don't possess the correct enzymes to break down that bacteria. And so it crystallizes in the gut lining, eventually rupturing it and destroying it there. Both BTI and alpha-sad only work on the larval stages. We use our pupa because pupa do not feed, so the only way to control them and stop them from becoming adults is to provide a larvacite oil which creates a surface layer so they can't breathe through the water.

We try not to use our larvacite oil ever just because it will also affect any other insects that are in the water. It does break down in under 18 hours on average, 24 hours max across that surface.

And with that, we try not to use anywhere that feeds into the Laramie River. And like I said, our provisionals know that if they find areas with pupa, they are to contact either Adam or myself first before they are allowed to even touch the larvacite oil so we can verify that it is an area that is both it'll work and does not feed anywhere we don't want it to feed.

Night fogging. Night fogging takes place Sunday through Thursday from June to August with three to four trucks starting at sunset ending on average by midnight using Xenovex E4RTU pyrethroid. Fogging must take place above 50 degrees and under 10 mile an hour winds. This is to prevent drift and off target species from being hit. The city is broken into three districts that are cycled between in order between North, South and West. Only border areas when numbers were low or additional border when numbers were high events centers would receive extra fogging for public safety so if areas are higher we'll treat more. Fogging is a proactive disease management measure by fogging we knock down potential vectors before an outbreak can occur and disrupt the active transmission between birds and Culex populations, lowering the overall viral load in the area and lowering the city's threshold

Vice Mayor. What's a Culex population?

So Culex is our primary vector for this side of the United States. They transmit West Nile virus by feeding on birds, then catching it, and then transmitting it to us. And that is our target species for population reduction besides our nuisance vectors.

Counselor Freed.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you both so far for this presentation. I'll try to save my questions for when they're relevant as you guys are going through. Could you just talk about what this, the fogging, the Zenevix E4RTU pyrethroid, I think one of the concerns I always hear about and try to dispel is that that damages pollinators or could risk hurting bee populations. We're very concerned about those. Can you guys describe what that chemical is that's being sprayed and the harms or how it's not harming those things?

The biggest reason that we are applying at night is... because most pollinators are in nests, they're gone, they are sleeping essentially. And that product, Xenovex itself, breaks down in the sunlight very quickly. So by the time they are back looking for foliage, flowers to pollinate, that product, if it went through the areas, will not be a risk. It is a lower risk of transmission to off-target pests or pollinators, things we wanna keep.

To add to that, Zenevex is one of the few products that are registered by the EPA for adulticides as reduced risk. There is only about two other products on the market that I can think of off the top of my head that are also reduced risk. The reason it will qualify for reduced risk is it does have to have a breakdown time of under 12 hours. So by the time we were done fogging, that 12 hours is the max that the product will stay as the actual chemicals before it breaks down. And then once UV light is also applied to it, that breaks down that 12 hours even quicker. And how our Zenevex works is it has no barrier effect. So once, it only affects those, what is currently flying in the air. So the fog ultimately will hang in the air for 30 minutes before it settles. so it is only affecting what is currently flying through the fog. And once it has settled, it has no barrier effect, it has no other effect. And the reason why we use ultra-low volume with it is the actual droplet size that's coming out, you could put about seven of those droplets across like a writing pinhead. And the reason why it needs to be that small is we're trying to penetrate through the mosquitoes. Our product has to penetrate, and so if the product is too large, the droplet size is too large, or if it's pulled up on something, it won't penetrate. And another thing to help with our bees and other things like that, on the off chance they would still be out, poison is the dosage. If you compare the size of a mosquito to that of a bee, it's comparing a deer to an elephant. So on average, if Unfortunately, where they were to come in contact, the dosage is going to be very low, so it should have minimal effect. And studies have shown that bees, just because of their size and how quickly they can beat their wings, most bees can actually fly through ELV sprays with basically creating a force field as they fly through.

And to add on that too, what he's saying is like, so most of the products, all pesticides products used, they work off of an LD50 value for the target. So LD50 is the dosage to kill 50% of a specific population what the target pest is. And usually that is off of weight as well. So if you take like a mosquito that's maybe half a gram and a bee that's significantly more, the active ingredient within that product would have to be significantly more to kill something bigger. So that's just how that breaks down, I guess.

So follow up.

Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for the explanation. That's I love the B force field analogy. I can see it. I can imagine it. So that's great. That made me think of another question about it. You know, and you might be getting to this at some point, too. But with the fogging, obviously, I think. What's the risk to humans? And you've talked about poison and levels with, with insects, you know, obviously you probably don't want to go tell people to go just breathe into all this stuff, but like there's, there's gotta be EPA risks that have been evaluated, right? For all this stuff to be sprayed.

Xenovex is registered as caution on its signal word, which means as low toxicity to humans or domestic animals. Like I said, a, you'd have to ingest or take in a lot for it to do any harm. One of the biggest things, like when we go to conferences or things, is with Xenovex, you'd kill yourself faster trying to drink caffeine or nicotine before you'd kill yourself off of just the dosage that is in Xenovex.

Same with that LD50 value. Us versus mosquitoes, like the weight. So it would have to be extremely concentrated, which it can't be because it's pre-diluted.

One thing that a lot of people, when you see our fog trucks, it looks like a lot of material being sprayed out the back. The product we use, only 4% of the product is actual active ingredients. If we are driving the 10 miles an hour that we should be and through the alleyways, we're putting out of the actual active ingredient, we're only putting out an ounce over an entire football field as a way to think about it. The rest of it is all carrier just to make sure it suspends in the air.

Councillor O'Doherty. So to those of us that run around and close our windows when we hear the fog truck, we really just have to have them closed for about 30 minutes.

Correct. Very good. We're learning a lot tonight. And I will tell you, these are important questions because we've been getting emails from people in the community. So this is going to help us to answer some of these. Councillor Shumway.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you for such an informative discussion. Couple of questions. I know that there's a few animals that depend on mosquitoes and these other gnats and black flies or whatever for food, but are there any that are being deprived within the city of Laramie? I know it's fish and bats. Do we have any that we are running out of the city because they don't have adequate food because we're eliminating their supply?

I would, so most of our treatments is population reduction. It's not elimination. So there's still going to be abundant food sources for these populations. There's no way we're gonna be able to get them all. It's just reduce the amount that everyone at home seeing them and our vectors. And it's very targeted to the areas where we're seeing our populations. So I don't think, I would not think that there is a risk there.

Thank you. Continue.

We are working this year in conjunction with Joshua and the University of Biodiversity on bat houses this year. So we'll be helping to monitor going forward and we'll be able to answer the bat question more later on.

So this is our previous year's aerial application. So June 10th, 25, we applied 19,200 pounds of granular Vectobac GS applied at five pounds an acre over 4,979 acres. And then our... Second, we applied June 27, 25, this is our adult aside, we applied 60 gallons of Diabrom Concentrate Nalate applied at 0.5 ounces an acre over 15,374.58 acres. And then our last July 28, 25, our larva side, 30 gallons of Diabrom Concentrate Nalate applied at 0.5 ounces an acre over 6,915.68 acres Thank you.

one thing I'd like to add. The reason why we use Diabrom for our adult aerials versus using Xenovex like we do in town is to help reduce resistance you should be rotating your products and how the product's mode of action works. Diabrom is a different mode of action when it comes to adulticide so by using Diabrom on our outer areas when we do that we are introducing a rotation into our program which is the American Mosquito Council's recommended best practice and

Yeah. The more you use the same thing, the more time they have to adapt and overcome it. So we just want to continue. But adult surveillance trap settings will continue to take place Sunday through Thursday from June to October. We have 18 traps throughout the city. An additional nine New Jersey traps from other districts that they bring us in their mosquitoes that we test for West Nile as well.

And those other districts are, as I mentioned before, the Big Laramie, the Little Laramie, and Rock River. And then you can see our presentation if you'd like to know just where we have our traps distributed. Each of those pins is where we have our traps located. I'll explain a little how CDC traps work real quick. So CDC traps are the currents best on the market for our region for trapping mosquitoes. They use a combination of light, heat, and CO2. Female mosquitoes, they're only biting mosquitoes. They track through heat and CO2, and so by placing our traps are set in areas where it has low light, so our light sources they can see it, and then by having the CO2 at the height of about three to four foot, it's mimicking humans or other livestock that they may be looking for, and then it's sucked into a collection net that we bring to the shop, we freeze, and we go from there. Our other districts primarily use New Jersey traps. New Jersey traps were invented in the 1950s and have Been fairly common throughout the nation. They work primarily just like our CDC traps. The only difference is they don't use a CO2 attractant. They just rely off of heat and light.

One of the things that I've always found interesting is CO2 is the main attractant for mosquitoes. And if I understand it correctly, humans exude CO2 out of their breath and out of their skin, right? And the skin is what is really attracting to those mosquitoes. And so one of the things that I'm sure these guys may cover it is when you think about mosquito repellent or whichever. It's really just camouflage for the CO2. I love it when I get head shakes because it means I've been paying attention. It's just camouflage for the CO2 that your body's exuding.

because we don't have it in here. Just one thing I'd like to mention is that as we mention repellents, there are three different main types of repellents on the market. There's classic DEET that everyone knows. There's also Picardin, which is a man-made version of DEET. And then there are essential oils like lemon eucalyptus oil. One thing we'd like to recommend, because we do a class with third graders and fourth graders every year, One of the things we do teach them is if you feel like you're still getting bit but you have your mosquito repellent on because everyone's unique, try one of the other different formulations. Something else may work better for you. This is an example I always give to the kids is I have tried Picardin once and I came home with over 400 mosquito bites after treating Heart Ranch, whereas if I use DEET and lemon eucalyptus oil, I'm perfectly fine. So if you do feel like you're still getting bit and you are protecting yourself, try something else. It might work a little better for you.

Interesting.

When we were kids, my mom used to cover us in Avon Skin So Soft, right? And that was a great mosquito repellent.

So this is our adult mosquito surveillance. Mosquitoes are retrieved daily. These are from the CDC traps that he was discussing. We retrieve these five days a week. The mosquitoes in these traps are counted, sexed, and speciated. Culex tarsalis, our West Nile vector, is set aside for testing. Culex talsara, sorry. Tarsalis. Tarsalis, I'm sorry. Mosquito testing pools are based off regional areas. So this is the transmission of West Nile. Go ahead.

So with West Nile virus, Culex dorsalis is a little bit of an interesting mosquito. They normally don't prefer feeding off of mammalian sources. They prefer birds. And that is where West Nile virus exists. The viral reservoir exists in birds. So primarily Culex are feeding off of birds and that's where they'll pick up the virus. And then humans or horses being bit that were incidental hosts were not their targets. Recent research has started to show that Culex tarsalis, once they are infected with West Nile virus, they have been shown to start switching their preferred food source from avian to mammals. So that's one reason also we want to make sure we're wearing our protection because studies are showing that once they are infected, they are looking more for us versus their primary food source. Then I have a little chart there we made this year just to kind of show, just to kind of help people better understand how West Nile virus works. And the majority of people, eight out of 10 people, if they are infected with West Nile virus, will never know you're asymptomatic. You'll never know you have it. And then one in five people who are infected, you'll just feel like you have a summer cold or a summer cough. Most people won't even go in for testing because it's that mild. And then about 1% of the people who do show symptoms, they're going to start showing severe symptoms. And those are the ones that's where we're really going to start knowing our human cases are there because they're going in for that. And then 1 in 10 of that 1%, normally those with immunocompromised, older, younger, could also die because of the disease. which is why West Nile virus is one of our primary focuses for our program is just to knock it out because it is a thing that exists. And in the United States, the viral reservoir in birds have been seen to be on the rise nationwide in Laramie, in Albany County and the Wyoming shows that exact trends as well.

Councilor O'Doherty. Do crows and things get sick? I can't remember.

Yeah, as avians, if you do find a bird in town that has passed away, if you take it to the Wyoming vet lab in town, they will test it for avian cases. We do not currently test birds anymore, but if you contact us, if you find any, you forget, we'll direct you on how to properly bring it to the vet lab.

I'm not sure how many of you were here with Keith Wardlaw, he was our initial first ever mosquito control supervisor and he described to me that the West Nile virus is basically 100% effective in killing the American crow. Once a bird gets the West Nile virus, the chance of that bird surviving is slim to none. And it's an interesting virus in that if you think about it, it generates through birds kills the birds, but then those mosquitoes can transfer it. They can catch it from the birds and transfer it to the humans. And that is the end host when they talk about the end is they won't bite a human like Adam Taylor or myself and they don't get West Nile picked up from that. They pick it up from the generation and the birds. And so birds are the critical species host for this virus.

So this is a prevalence of West Nile virus in Albany County and Southeast Wyoming. Since 2022, positive West Nile QLX pools have gone from 2% to 20 to 30% in pools tested in Albany County alone. Southeastern Wyoming has seen a similar rise in positive rates. QLX Tarsalis pools are tested with 15 to 50 female mosquitoes broken down by region. Pools use mosquitoes caught by the city and our other districts in Albany County. West Nile virus viral presence within the state's birds spiked in 23 and has remained an ongoing concern and continues to pose a persistent threat in the warmer months. Wyoming Department of Health. Studies show infected Culex tarsalis exhibit increased blood feeding rates on mammals versus non-infected, which keep their blood feeding to birds. We're like, they're like pest of opportunity. They feed on us based on opportunity. Birds are their main source, so.

Then I just have a chart I have. The Wyoming Department of Health has a website where we report all of our West Nile virus, whether it's positive or negative. And the whole state and every other county does this as well. I believe it's fight the bites. or if you just look up West Nile Department of Health, it'll bring it up. This, just showing with the chart I added, it just shows when West Nile virus cases occur most, and it's July through September, and the reason for that is most of our nuisance mosquitoes are floodwater mosquitoes, so they prefer the nice, clean, fresh sitting water that are in the hay fields. Culex, they prefer more heavy organics, so they're gonna start appearing later in the season once everything has started to dry out, and they got that really gross nasty water. That's normally happens around July. And then just one thing I also found interesting that Wyoming does have a higher infection rate than the rest of the United States since 2003. So it's just something that we also make sure is we want to make sure we're protecting ourselves. And that's why we try to do the best we can with our program is just because Wyoming does see higher infection rates.

Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much. Do we have any idea as to why that is?

I don't. The most I can give is maybe opinions or guesses. A lot of people in Wyoming may not be using the protection they should. Wyoming is very interesting compared to most other states. Most towns or counties, very few have actual dedicated programs that are to our extent. Most of their programs may do one spray a year or they may not be doing larviciding. There's a bunch of different factors that could go into it but I couldn't give you an exact reasoning why.

Taylor, am I correct in past testing that, is it Goshen County that has high volumes of Culex tarsal sets, which is Torrington, right? And probably due to lack of a dedicated control system.

Southeastern Wyoming has the highest per, when it comes to the state, if you look at what's reported for West Nile and Culex populations, Laramie, Albany, Goshen, and I'm blanking on the fourth one or the highest in the state for reports.

When you say infection rates, do you mean infections of humans or mosquitoes? What percentage of mosquitoes have the virus?

Mosquitoes that have the virus. Positive pools that are reported. So I just included this because a lot of people don't realize we have a West Nile virus action plan. It's broken in between three risk categories. 90% of the year, we are at level zero because there's no adult mosquito populations active. Right now, we are currently sitting in level one low risk for West Nile transmission, and we basically go to that the moment we start seeing adult mosquitoes are active. Culex tarsalis, well, I did mention they prefer to the grosser water before they start reproducing. Culex dorsalis is one of our only species in Wyoming that overwinters as adults. So early season, there may still be Culex before they start producing. We have found two so far with our testing as of today. And then Basically, once we go into level one, that's when we're going to start our larvicide treatments. We're going to start trapping, and once we reach actionable thresholds is when we'll start introducing our adult fogging operations in town. And then we go to level two, which is a high risk. The moment we go into high risk is the moment there's any horse or human cases in town. the area or if we have a continuous chain of positive Culex pools that we are testing. It's the same as what our action plan is, it's the same as with low risk, depending on what we are seeing, we may integrate further aerials or potentially a higher rate that we are applying our adult, our ULV product. within label limits still. And then we have level three, which is now break in progress. And that is if we are having a lot of human cases, we are having Culex primarily in our traps. And if we go to that, that's when we would institute a night and a morning truck route as well. I've been programmed for five years. We have never gone below, above a high. And I hope to, we will never have anything above a high.

Counselor O'Doherty.

I have a couple of public health questions. If we did get to high, might that be a good time to not have kids out on the playing sports like we have with lightning, you know, like warnings about thunderstorms and things?

I think when it gets to high, I think we'd have to, I think it would depend on how many positive pools we are actually going. We will definitely, we definitely recommend if we ever get to high, we will be putting out PSAs just to remind people to try to stay indoors when mosquitoes are active or to make sure they're wearing repellents, wearing long sleeves or any other protective equipment. What I'd say we really want to suspend is if we ever get to level three.

If I could add on to that, remember the five Ds are dawn and dusk, which is when you avoid the mosquitoes because that's when they're feeding. And then deet and dress. And the fifth D is drain, which we don't have container species in Albany County, right? So we typically... at least that I'm aware of, we have never had container species of mosquitoes, which is like if you got an old tire full of water or something, we typically won't see mosquitoes in that. Ours come out of floodwaters or ponds, places like that. But from a public health emergency standpoint, it comes down to that education of what people should be doing and how they protect themselves from the transmission of the virus.

With your question as well, I think it would also be determined on the amount of humans that have it, right? So preventative measures, like he said, wearing protective clothing, DEET and stuff will always help reduce risk. And that should just be, I feel like, standard practice overall.

Follow up? And I know this isn't your purview because you're doing the entomology, not the human side, but do people become immune if they do? I mean, do we see a tighter in the blood or is there a possibility of vaccines down the road? Have you heard?

There have been no successful human vaccines for West Nile virus. There are, because if you have owned horses, there are positive effects that have been seen with vaccines for horses. From my understanding, once you have received, if you have ever received West Nile virus, it's very unlikely that you will ever receive it again, is from my understanding, but I am not 100% on that.

Thank you. Councilor Shumway.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to give you three critters and tell me if they can become infected by West Nile virus. Cats, dogs and bats.

Cats and dogs can receive West Nile virus. It's extremely minor in them receiving it. I don't know fully what the rate of transmission or the effect it would be on those. Primarily with our position, it's mostly horses, humans, and the avian populations that we're focusing on because they have the most detrimental effects of West Nile virus. And I'm not certain on bats.

We can look into it.

Thank you. Continue.

So we just want to include one thing in about the Wyoming Emergency Insect Management Grant, or the EMAG. The EMAG, it's a state grant. Its primary focus is to fight West Nile virus. The city of Laramie does apply for the EMAG every year, and we just want to make sure to specify, we only use it to supplement our Culex. Tarsalis populations, we don't use those funds for anything for fighting nuisance populations. Typically when we apply for our grants, we are applying for late season adulticides and then our ramp testing. Ramp testing is what we use to test for West Nile virus. And for our districts and all the other districts as well. And then just want to say the EMAG is one of the main reasons why our program is successful is just because it does help supplement our product so we can make sure we are doing every proactive measure. Surveillance, larviciding, ULV, fogging just help knock down that abundance of the viral reservoir in the areas.

So this next section will explain working with the public. And we'll go over that. So this is our website currently. This hosts information about what we do. It also has contact information for us as well, our hotline number, application plans, and it's updated daily by 4 p.m. It also holds up to date West Nile testing mosquito application updated daily and then links to our mosquito bite prevention and no spray program as well as West Nile and Zika virus information. There, and then this is kind of more of a little bit of a breakdown of our no spray program. This program allows property owners to opt out of fogging along their property lines, but not the fee associated with the control. Properties are GPS and physically marked as our trucks enter the no spray zone. The foggers are turned off before we enter that property and then turned on after we pass that property. The goal, 100 feet. 100 feet before and 100 feet after. At this point in time we have 99 residential addresses that are part of this program.

Just one thing to add, the reason why, well, even if you opt out of the Nosepray program, you're only opting out of the ULV program. And the reason why the fees are there is because the ULV program is the smallest percentage of our program. Those fees still are mostly going to, are paying for the larvaciting and our surveillance and speciating that we do of mosquitoes.

Education for 2026. Educating the public is one of our most powerful tools for mosquito abatement. The Ag Expo. This is just kind of like a community involvement education throughout the city. So we have our Ag Expo for the third graders we do every year. And then National Mosquito Control Awareness Week. and answering questions and concerns with honesty, knowledge and caring. We get emails, we respond to emails as best as we can with our knowledge. We respond to them in a timely manner and we're always here if anyone asks questions, if they call or email us, we will answer that.

So this is a chart we just have. This shows our historic annual mosquito totals for the seasons from 2003, skipping a couple years, and then our last five. One thing to note is that 2014 is the highest we've ever seen for mosquito populations, and the reason why that's significant is 2003 was our last major drought, which we are looking at similar conditions. The reason for that is mosquito eggs for most of our flood water species can last up to 10 years without hatching. And so when we don't have areas being flooded, we're increasing the egg bank that could be hatched the next year. So it's one thing just potentially But it might be an issue coming forward next season is if we don't start seeing more water breaking down these egg banks. We may see a higher population next year. And as you can see, the last several years have been fairly consistent. Last year was the second to lowest in the last five years. 2003 was our highest year for Culex populations, but that was seen across statewide. And then... If you pull up the thing, one thing to kind of show, just a thing with Laramie, our Culex populations are cyclical. So we see about a rise and fall every year, every other year on those populations, which are shown through our data there with the orange line at the bottom there.

Vice Mayor. Thank you. And again, my question, do we know why it is cyclical like that?

Can I give you an exact answer? But normally with Culex tarsalis and West Nile, it is a cyclical virus seen throughout the nation. My primary belief would be because of what the bird populations as they die off one year because of a massive amount of West Nile virus in their populations the year before, we're gonna see less birds, but then if they're not dying off, we're gonna see an increase in the bird population the next year, which just increases the amount of potential reservoir for the virus the next year.

and Councilor Freed.

Thank you, Mayor. I saw the city manager. We're talking about mosquitoes, and he starts hand sanitizing over there. The egg bank, I know we treat multiple stages of the lifespan of a mosquito. Can we do anything against eggs? I mean, I'm sure it's hard and maybe not effective. They're in the dirt or soil, but is there anything we can do?

nothing that our program does. The biggest things, I guess, to help eliminate the egg bank would be to eliminate areas where water can be held. I don't know if there's anything that I know of that would help to eliminate the egg bank just because the eggs are extremely, extremely tiny. If you ever want to swing by our shop, we have eggs if you want to ever see them. One example is we have a little half-inch strip that's about three inches long that's got over a thousand mosquito eggs on it. If you ever want to see them, just swing by our shop and we'll more than gladly show you. Take your glasses. Go ahead. Going forward, this is just predictions for what the season may end up looking like. Right now, like I mentioned, our current snowpack in the mountains, it's the black line on the chart there. It's very similar to what we saw in 2003 and 2004. On average, we're about in the green. That's right in the middle. That's where we were last year. Just with our Lower snowpack, that means the river, the amount of flooding along the river will be down, so we will see less populations due to that flooding, but because of the fact that most of our hay fields in town are flood-irrigated and we're still going to see our populations at least early June and, or through June and then potentially early July, will most likely stay the same just because those areas are still receiving flooding because One thing, most of our mosquitoes that we see in town don't originate in town. Most of our mosquitoes are born west of town, and because we were the first thing on the stop going east, we're going to come here. Most adult mosquitoes can fly 10 to 15 miles a night, and so it doesn't take long for them to get to town, especially when they're looking for food sources.

And with them coming out from in, that's why our program is specifically focused on reduction, because you're never going to stop the pressure. You can just reduce the pressure.

Vice Mayor. Thank you. So looking at this chart, I was getting pretty excited earlier because I thought, oh, we're going to have a much lower rate of mosquitoes, but not early season, but possibly late season. Correct.

And then, like we were saying, next year we're going to probably see an increase because of those eggs that haven't had the water come through yet.

If we don't go into a long-term drought.

Then if the drought continues, then the time where it's lower will continue.

This is just showing just for the NOAA's predictions for the rest of the season. It's predicted we're going to be hotter than last year and we're gonna see less rain, just what they're predicting for our region. And then just some things to expect during a drought if we do end up going into a full drought or if we don't start seeing more is, as I mentioned, Culex populations, they prefer that gross, nasty water. So the drier we are, those are gonna be better areas for our vector mosquitoes. So with that, Normally, most people's first instinct is the moment they stop seeing mosquitoes is when they're going to stop wearing DEET, they're going to stop using protections. And if we go into a drought with our Culex populations, that is one of the worst things we could do for public health, for our individual selves. be aware that even if you don't see a lot of mosquitoes, Culex tarsalis populations will probably continue to be the same, and so we want to make sure that we're protecting ourselves.

From my understanding, typically in a drought, don't we see higher Culex populations because there's less water, more dry areas, so that water does get grosser and then they breed more.

With our program, the things we'll be looking to do if we start going more towards drought is our surveillance is going to focus more on cryptic water sources, which can be harder to find, just versus large-scale water areas. One example is... We've had several cases where we've had footprints or a single tire track that's maybe two feet long, it's holding water, and it's producing thousands of mosquitoes a day off of that tiny little cryptic water source. Mosquitoes don't need a lot of water to reproduce. And then we'll continue, even if we have a drought, we're going to continue trapping. And if we start seeing numbers drop to zero on a daily basis, we're still going to trap until October when mosquito species will have finally, temperatures will finally reach the point where they aren't viable anymore. Just to make sure that we don't have all of a sudden a surprise increase in Culex population without us being aware. And then depending on our... what we're seeing for population abundance, that will affect how our fogging schedule works. If we start seeing less mosquito populations in later July, we'll pull back to our perimeter spray or just focus on areas we are seeing higher populations of nuisance and vector mosquitoes. I think that's it. Questions?

Okay, any further questions and or comments? Councilor Newman. Thank you, Mayor.

I feel like every time that you guys come present, I know everything about mosquitoes, and then the following year, I learn like 50 new facts. I truly appreciate this work session. That's all I got.

Councilor Freed.

Thank you, Mayor, and yeah, thank you both a ton for your time and information and just a wealth of knowledge for the public and for us. And I know you've said this maybe a couple times in your presentation, but if people had general questions, comments, concerns, the best way to get a hold of someone is that call on the phone number, email, and stop by. What would you guys prefer? And what should we tell the public? Like, hey, what's going on here?

Either email or if you do have questions, our hotline is automated now, so it does not take voicemails. So if you call our shop directly, which is 307-721-5258, you'll either get Adam or someone in our shop and we'll definitely answer any questions. Or if you email us or if you ever want to have a time with us just to talk one-on-one, we are more than willing to do any education or give any information.

Councillor O'Doherty.

I was a little nervous. Well, I was very nervous when Mr. Dierman left and was worried about the program, but I see we are in great hands with Mr. Ross and Albright and I really appreciate it. And I should have known that everything would be under control, but thank you. Great.

Thank you very much.

It was very informative. If I could say, I'd like to wrap this up a little bit. If you remember, the integrated pest management system is really about being nimble and putting our resources where they're best used. And most of that comes from surveillance. And one thing that Adam and Taylor did go over is understanding the dollar. So $4.89 is on the water bill for mosquito control 12 months a year. And of that, remember, it's not just about fogging or mosquito spraying. It's surveillance. It's data testing. It's buying the chemicals. It's doing all the pieces of the puzzle that happens. It's not all invested in just one piece. The second aerial that counselors or the third aerial, right? So we usually do a rotation of three aerials, which is the first one's that granular larval bactericide. And then the second one is an adult one. And then the third one is an if case scenario in case we are in those limits where we need the additional surveillance and the control. So it really is a nimble program. I didn't do a great job. Adam came to us just about three months ago, right? And he's been with us as our mosquito control supervisor. And I couldn't agree with you more, Councilor Doherty, that we're in good hands. Right now we are looking for him employees yes so so if anybody wants to drive the mosquito fogger at night we can even install a little disco ball in there so that it can keep you awake while you're doing it and then it'll keep you going but we'd encourage anybody that's interested in maybe an evening job or some other sort of helping us out with mosquito control we'd sure appreciate it

Great, thank you. Thank you, thank you very much. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Hearing none, I will return to council for updates and council comments. Councillor Freed.

Thank you, Mayor. I was able to attend the Wyoming Association of Municipalities Conference last week along with some other councillors. Really informative, met some awesome people doing great things in their communities across the state. So that was a pleasure, and I think a lot of people were really excited about their opportunity to visit Laramie, to see Laramie for the first time, and engage with our staff who did a tremendous job, I think, making that a seamless conference. So that was really cool. And then, yeah, I have railroad depot board meeting on Thursday, traffic safety commission on Thursday, there is no ranch advisory commission this month, and there's no parks, trees, and rec board this month. And those are my updates.

Thank you, Mayor. Planning Commission was canceled last night because of lack of any subjects, so I have nothing.

Hey, Councilor Newman.

I got to do the WAM Wild Tech Tour, which the bus had some problems, so kind of wait. But according to city staff, there was good feedback from it. A lot of people didn't know actually what we did there, which was surprising to know and got to tell those guys kind of what we do and then kind of just heard that WAM was going really well because I couldn't make it.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I also attended WAM. It was a really informative, great conference. I appreciated that. Thank you to Councilor Bolling who attended the Pilot Hill meeting for me because I was out of town, which was great. And then Beautification Met, they are continuing to look at applications that are coming in for beautification projects. And there was an announcement that there are downtown lights on 3rd Street that we help support to kind of give a little love to those 3rd Street businesses who felt the impacts from all that construction. The Conner building has been... in the wings because we are going to have to like block off part of the street to get the equipment. That is too heavy to be on the sidewalks to get on the lights up there, so I believe June 8th and 9th. Oh, it's like right now ish. Yeah, sorry, I've just realized what date it is. So it's here right soon, but it should only take a day. It'll be done, and it's not closing the entire street. It's just a little section to get those lights up.

Vice Mayor, I think I saw traffic control in that area today.

Okay, so I think it was today. And I think that's it.

Councillor Bolling, do you have anything to report?

Thank you, Mayor. First of all, just reiterate all the thanks to the mosquito control presentation. And if you guys can get your hands on some of those really cool little educational packets. I'm sure they brought them with them, but I had... Mr. Dearman dropped a bunch to the museum last year for an event. WAM was great. Just another big ups to our city staff for the work that they put into that. I did attend the pilot Hill meeting and vice mayor, I apologize. I should have sent you these notes and I will do that right after this meeting. Just a few updates. They'll be looking for a new chair and a new vice chair sort of at the end of this upcoming board term. Um, and three terms are coming up. At least one person has kind of expressed interest in that renewal. Uh, and the board also has two vacancies that can be filled. So, um, uh, if folks have, um, good candidates in mind, that's something to think about. a lot of different, um, updates from budget cashflow, stuff like that. But I think maybe the, uh, the biggest one for this body is that, um, the trail, uh, name subcommittee has, uh, been doing some work and has kind of voted on, um, a recommended slate for those. Those are not public yet, but they will be after they are, uh, voted on by the trustees because some of those trails are on the UW properties on Pilot Hill. And that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Councillor Shumway.

Thank you, Mayor, and congratulations to our Mayor who's now a member of the WAM Region 1 Board. That's something that we definitely needed so that we could represent our region. Also, I will say this. I've been attending the WAM meetings now for several years, We are in better shape now that I have ever, ever seen WAM and the things that they're accomplishing and how well organized they are. And we've now brought the entire family, all 99 cities are now members of the WAM Association. So great, again, our staff did an absolute fabulous job with WAM. And I know the council worked hard too, so thank you.

Councillor O'Doherty. The Laramie advisory, wait a minute, I'm getting my names wrong, the environmental

I'm getting my commissions and advisory committee.

Okay, so they met last week while we were supposed to be at the WAM dinner. Anyway, and they heard from Emma Jones from the Sierra Club about Rocky Mountain Powers Resource Center. integrated resource management plan and we're disappointed that so that even though Rocky Mountain Power, Pacific Power, the parent company is using alternative energy in all their other states. They're just like, yeah, but not Wyoming. So we would like to have some influence on them and the commission is going to send us a letter of support to say, you know, could we Could we knock on the door and say, look, you know, we're big customers, so please pay attention to us and, you know, in line with our goals. And then the Advisory Commission on Disabilities is going to be at Pride in the Park this weekend from noon to 5 with the booth. Thanks.

Councillor Vigil, did you have anything you wanted to report?

Yeah, Mayor, thank you. Just to reiterate what everyone's been saying, William was absolutely phenomenal. Just a huge shout out to city staff there. I was able to speak at the Pride March um, on Sunday morning and really good attendance there. Um, was grateful for that opportunity. And if you haven't been to any of the pride fest, uh, activities, um, yet you, you absolutely should. Uh, it's yeah, there's just great stuff happening this year. That's all I got.

Thank you. Thank you and thank you for reading the proclamation at the start of Pride Fest. I had it on my in my mind that it was the morning of the of the Pride Fest in the park. And I think last year it started then, but thank you for being there and for reading the proclamation, much appreciated. Absolutely, thank you. And let's see, on June the 1st, the Civil Service Commission met and we concluded with our findings from the investigation that we'd been doing. And that was in a public meeting. and then I also attended WAM and being the mayor of the host city I felt like I really needed to be there and it was very educational, I met a lot of good people, had some great conversations. And as Councilor Shumway is saying, WEM is in the best shape that it has ever been in. and they're doing a number of innovative things to move forward in service and education for the municipalities of Wyoming. And I would like to congratulate Jim Freed, who was Yeah, I know. Who was, but then I got to do it. Remember, he was elected as a member of the Leadership Services Committee of WAM. And I was on that. And our duty was to resurrect the committee and then to work on the council mayor handbook. And the next stage is to bring leadership education into partnership with the community colleges of Wyoming and to create four tiers, one tier would offer the mandatory financial training that we must go through if we're elected office. The second would offer municipal leadership. The third would be an advanced addition of that and then the fourth tier would be city manager certification and they are serious and moving forward and looking forward to Jim helping them out. And let's see, and I'm proud to represent our city on the Region 1 Board of Directors for WAM. And then... Friday evening, I attended the Wyo Tech Hall of Fame banquet, which is always, I think Councilor Lockhart went with me last year, and I took Fred Schmidt this year. Schmeckel, and again, it was so inspiring to hear the stories, and that was good. And many people gave very positive feedback about their tour of WyoTech. and tomorrow we have the airport board meeting. And immediately following that, I am going to help with the Wyoming toad introduction, joining Wyoming Game and Fish, which will also include a tour of our new doweling. And so I'm real excited about that. And I'm really excited about distributing the toads. So I'll report on how that goes. And that ends that. So let's go ahead and look at the agenda. And I just want to make one note on letter of support 9G. And that is letter of support for BikeNet. And they informed us they need that letter to submit a grant. And so what we're going to do, the city manager will go ahead and send that. So rather than coming from the council and mayor, it will come from the city manager. And then... Our other letter of support, the Helper Act is a national... Did you have something to say about that?

If I could respond to that. The letter of support for BikeNet doesn't commit the city financially. It is just indicating our support for BikeNet and the support they provide our community and that we believe they'd be a good recipient of the grant opportunity. That's why I feel very comfortable that that can come from the city manager.

Yes, because it does not... commit us to anything. And it's the same with the Helper Act. That is an act currently being reviewed in the US Congress that would provide lower interest loans to first responders and teachers. So it'd be like FHA, VA, the Helper Act would provide that kind of assistance for first responders and teachers. So again, we're not committing to any financial obligation, we're just saying that it would be a great benefit to our community to have something like this in place. So without any more announcements, if you can take a look and let me know if you have any questions or if you need something moved. Councillor Newman.

Thanks, Mayor. What's 9K?

Honorable Mayor, through you, that's a lease of the travel-in corner for Third Street beautification. So that would be to acquire and redevelop that corner to create the gateway that we're working on.

Okay. Quick question.

Vice Mayor? Would it be possible to just adjust this to note that it's for that travel-in just in the title?

Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. Thanks for the question, Councillor Newman. Any other questions or requests to move something? Any questions on the regular agenda? Councillor Shumway.

Would it be... helpful if we put on the consent agenda to ratify this letter of support to bike net even though it's the letters coming from the just so it's been so that we can come back and show that the city council as well as the city i like that i i would like that on the public record that not only are you signing that but we also would like to ratify

that support. Okay, thank you. I was thinking more of their grant deadline, but I did want us to give that support to them because they do so much for our community. Okay, no further questions. We are adjourned at 7.