LUMBERTON — That buzz you awakened to on Friday could be a lingering and annoying remnant of Hurricane Florence, mosquitoes, or it might be an airplane with a mission to wipe them out.
Bill Smith, the director of the Robeson County Health Department, said a $1.24 million eradication project funded by local, state and federal dollars will take to the skies today to kill the insects that have been making going outside at dusk or dawn a stinging adventure since Florence left town on Sept. 16, leaving behind pools of water in which the mosquitoes thrive.
Smith said Williamsburg Air Service out of Kingstree, S.C., has been contracted to do the job after it finishes up in Horry County, S.C., and should have arrived in Robeson County Thursday night to begin work Friday morning. Smith said the company will spray from daybreak to 9:30 a.m., and 5 p.m. to dark, periods when mosquitoes are most active.
The chemical used, Dibrom, is not considered a threat to humans, except the most vulnerable. Beekeepers have also been advised of the spray.
“To safeguard their investments and health, it is particularly important for beekeepers and people sensitive to chemicals that they monitor the dates and flight patterns as they may change routinely,” Smith said.
Flight dates and patterns will be posted on Robeson County’s website, and the Health Department’s Facebook page, he said.
Almost all of the county will be covered.
“All areas, including towns, will be sprayed, except for areas registered federally as no-spray zones, such as protected lands,” Smith said.
Smith expects 600,000 out of of the county’s 607,501 acres to be sprayed.
The money to pay for the spraying includes $300,000 from the state and $824,000 from Robeson County, of which $693,000 is expected to be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The county Board of Commissioners on Monday, after a short discussion, voted in favor of one of three plans presented by Smith that included covering all of the county.
Smith believes the job of covering the largest county in the state, about 952 square miles, will take five days, but said the schedule is fluid and could be affected by weather.
“For instance, if it is too cool in the atmosphere, spraying cannot occur,” he said. “Storms will also have an impact.”
