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County Wages Warfare Against Kamikaze Foes

By Ed Harnett ON THE EASTERN FRONT - Forget the bloody war in the chilly South Atlantic. Forget the confused free-for-all in Lebanon where Israel and its allies mopped the dust with the PLO and the Syrians. There’s a war going on right here in Cape May County, with a horde of ferocious, bloodthirsty marauders zeroing in on their helpless prey. Facing them is a small defending force outnumbered billions to one in the air and hampered by weather conditions, but determined, trained, and armed with the latest scientific weapons, including chemical killers and an underwater division. It’s mosquito season again. And, according to Judy Hansen, superintendenfof the County Mosquito Commission, it's going to be a very bad year. What might be called an uphill battle — if that could be applied to terrain where the mean elevation is between the height of a front yard ant hill and an African termite mound. IT HAS BEEN a very wet spring, which spelled trouble for businesses dependent on tourism and for the mosquito fighters trying to keep the needle-nosed pests from putting the bite on people. The rainfall and unusual tides on both the full and new moon have brought flooding and reflooding to the county's extensive salt marshes, which are the most prolific pest producer. Normally, these areas nurture one brood a month. This year, says Mrs. Hanseh, "one brood peaked the second week in June and another shortly after. With normal tides and dry weather, the commission’s marsh management plan, providing tidal flow and natural predators in the breeding spots, would have cut deeply into the wiggler population, and aerial spraying would have finished the job. In addition, the rain, wind and fog have kept the commission helicopter grounded at the time the spraying program should have defivered the knockout punch. Prime target for destruction, and most voracious of the pests, is Aedans sollicitans, the salt marsh mosquito, which can wing a billion strong from a single acre of marsh to do its mini-vampire act. MOST OF SOLLICITANS’ relatives prefer to spend the daylight hours in cool dark places, bul the marsh buzzer doesn’t mind making blood collecting (Page 2 Please)

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inside: Little Red Schoolhouse Bargain Entertainments Summer Cheesecake

SMCIAL StenON Of THt HIKALD AMD LANTtRN JULY 21, 1982 i.ifM&.lartJtoftfrlii.i — .