LEONARDTOWN, MD (August 25, 2016) – The St. Mary’s County Health Department is providing an in-person workshop for communities interested in implementing a neighborhood mosquito source reduction campaign. The training is scheduled for Monday, August 29 at 6:30 p.m. at the health department located at 21580 Peabody Street in Leonardtown. Homeowners’ Association volunteers or others coordinating a neighborhood campaign are invited to attend.
Mosquitoes are known to cause various illnesses such as West Nile Virus and Zika virus disease. A Mosquito Source Reduction Campaign helps neighborhoods decrease local mosquitoes by encouraging homeowners to remove sources of mosquito breeding in their yards. Campaigns could involve sharing mosquito source reduction information with neighbors or door-to-door campaigns with volunteers to help property owners detect and address mosquito breeding sites.
The health department has also developed an online Toolkit that Homeowners’ Associations and housing communities can use to launch their own Neighborhood Mosquito Source Reduction Campaign. The Toolkit contains outreach materials, template letters to property owners, sample community newsletter articles, and additional information to address neighborhood mosquito control.
For information about implementing a neighborhood mosquito source reduction campaign in your community, please visit www.smchd.org/mosquito-control or call the health department’s Environmental Health Division at 301-475-4321
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