. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Diking, or building a wall to contain spoil on dredge islands, was initiated in North Carolina more than a year ago. Dikes are designed to slow the erosion of spoil into waterways. One of the unforeseen effects of diking appears to be an increase in mosquitoes. Diking makes headaches for state entomologist Diking has created new headaches for state entomologist Don Ashton. Since last year when dredge island diking was begun in North Carolina, he's been in a quandary over how to control the hordes of mosqui
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Diking, or building a wall to contain spoil on dredge islands, was initiated in North Carolina more than a year ago. Dikes are designed to slow the erosion of spoil into waterways. One of the unforeseen effects of diking appears to be an increase in mosquitoes. Diking makes headaches for state entomologist Diking has created new headaches for state entomologist Don Ashton. Since last year when dredge island diking was begun in North Carolina, he's been in a quandary over how to control the hordes of mosquitoes hatching on the diked spoil islands. Conditions perfect for salt marsh mosquito production begin as the spoil dries and cracks, Ashton explained. Mosquitoes deposit eggs on the walls of the cracks. Rain water collects in the cracks, providing moisture needed for the mosquito eggs to hatch, he said. "We've seen literally mil- lions of mosquito larvae on the diked islands," Ashton said. "Salt marsh mosquitoes have been known to fly 65 miles," he continued. "So you can imagine what happens to people on the beach one-half mile away," he said. While Ashton and his co-workers in the state's Division of Health Services Solid Waste and Vec- tor Control Branch have been able to explain the problem's cause, they're pretty much at a loss for its cure. Flooding the islands or covering them with sand to eliminate areas where mosquitoes lay eggs are proposed remedies. Chemical treatment could be another, Ashton explained. But those methods require money and manpower which neither the state nor the counties have, he added. "My contention is that it isn't the responsibility of the county or state to rectify the situation," Ash- ton said. He believes instead that permanent steps to eliminate the problem should be taken as the spoil is being dumped. "It's just not economically feasible to treat the problem over and over," he said. What is ne
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