Integrated Mosquito Management (IMM)
What is Integrated Mosquito Management?
IMM is a comprehensive, surveillance-based mosquito prevention and control strategy that utilizes all available mosquito control methods, either singly or in combination, to reduce the number of mosquitoes while maintaining a quality environment. (AMCA)
IMM Includes five critical tactics:
1. Ingaging the Community
Community engagement is a continual, ever-evolving process where a mosquito
control program routinely interacts with the public to:
create trust,
increase knowledge,
build relationships,
understand citizen perceptions and behaviors,
and recruit citizen participation.
2. Surveillance Driven
Surveillance for native and exotic species must be part of a mosquito control program regardless of the threat of disease outbreaks. Surveillance should be developed proactively to justify mosquito control funding requirements and risk for arboviral disease transmission. Action thresholds should be specified ahead of surveillance, and data collected from surveillance programs should be used in conjunction with action thresholds to determine the appropriate response.
Surveillance is collecting the numbers, location, and species of mosquitoes that are present in the county. We do this in three ways:
3. Physical Control
There are several ways to achieve physical control of the mosquito population. One of the key ways that the public can help is the reduction of mosquito breeding sources. Anything that can be done to eliminate stagnant bodies of water, leveling grounds, cleaning ditches so they run free, dumping containers that will hold water all serve as a type of physical control of mosquitoes.
4. Larval and Adult Mosquito Management
This includes using multiple tools including source reduction, biological control, and the application of targeted insecticides
Knowledge-Based
Understanding of Flight Ranges
Understanding of their life cycle
Understanding of Feeding preference
Knowing the different species in your area
Understanding of peak activity or flight times
Understanding of their habitats and preferences
Understanding of different breeding cycles or times
Resource limited
Though it is our desire to control the mosquito population in the county we do understand that we do not have unlimited resources. Because of these limits, we strive to prioritize the work that we do so that we get the greatest value for the money that we spend.
We base our services based on these and other priorities
The population density near Utah Lake
The historical breeding sites in the county
The water levels of Utah Lake and the habitat that is created
We establish thresholds that when met we will trigger the appropriate action. These thresholds are based on:
Resistance situations to insecticides
Disease transmission history
Political considerations
Species of mosquitoes
Historical tolerance
Surveillance tools
Time of year
5. Monitoring for insecticide efficacy and resistance
Resistance testing is a routine component of what we do here to ensure the prolonged life of currently available products and to provide the best protection for the public.