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N.J. enlists mosquitoes' natural predator, copepods, as new pest defense

Tuesday, 26 June 2012 13:35
BY MIKE OLIVA
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

New Jersey’s new defense against mosquitoes is barely visible to the naked eye, yet promises to end the days of draining swamps and spraying pesticides.

Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control has recently received about 10,000 tiny shrimp-like crustaceans to control mosquito population, called copepods.

Copepods, which eat mosquito larvae, are intended for roadside ditches, small pools, and other freshwater applications.

“They’re relatives of crayfish and love mosquitoes,” explained the administrator of the state's mosquito program, Bob Kent, in an interview with Paramus Patch. “They also love to eat mosquito larvae. They’ll sometimes just kill larvae and not bother to eat them.”

The inexpensive copepods are created inside the state Department of Agriculture's Philip Alampi Beneficial Insect Rearing Laboratory in West Trenton and although they are native to New Jersey, the Press of Atlantic City reported that this is the farthest north they have ever been used for mosquito control.

New Jersey is only the second state to use copepods, and is now the only state using them after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the New Orleans facility.

Copepods are already being used to fight mosquitoes in Bergen, Passaic and Morris counties. Ocean County is soon to follow while another six counties remain on the waiting list. 

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