The City of Powell will begin its annual mosquito spraying in June. Spraying days will be announced on the city’s website by 5 p.m. on the day crews will be spraying. 

City Sanitation Superintendent Allen Griffin said the department received a $9,650 grant from the Wyoming Department of Agriculture to help control West Nile virus. 

Last year, the grant provided $3,750, and Griffin said that was a particularly low year for funding. 

The money allows the Sanitation Department to trap mosquitoes, perform counts and spray as mosquito numbers increase. The grant money also will pay for larvicide for city storm drains. The drains often contain standing water, which is prime mosquito habitat.

“It’s a growth regulator. It adds a juvenile hormone to the water that the mosquito larvae eat and can’t grow into a viable adult,” Griffin explained. 

According to the Wyoming Department of Health, West Nile virus has been identified in all Wyoming counties, and about one in five people who are infected will develop a fever with other symptoms. Under 1% of infected people develop a serious, sometimes fatal, neurologic illness. Since 2012, there have been two fatal cases in the state, including one in Park County in 2013. 

City crews start spraying when the trap counts or citizen complaints increase, and that’s typically around June. 

City crews will start spraying a chemical called Biomist when local residents begin seeing mosquitos. Biomist is manufactured by Clarke Mosquito Control. More information about the spray is available at http://international.clarkemosquito.com.

Weather permitting, spraying begins at dusk and takes about four hours.

If you do not want your property to be sprayed, call the city at 754-5106 to be put on the no-spray list. For more information about the City of Powell’s mosquito-control program, contact the Sanitation Department at 754-6941.