Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do we know that those mosquitos they seem like they
are out in absolute force.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
At the moment I was fearing being.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Taken away by those mossies along the esplanade this morning,
flying around.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
There's so many of them.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Now joining us on the line to tell us a
little bit more about what is going on. It's into
Health's Medical Entomology Operations Manager Stephen Frick.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good morning to you, Stephen.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Good morning, Katie. How are you going.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm very well, Stephen.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Those mossies they are out in huge numbers at the moment,
it feels, yeah, they are.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
It tends to be up here in the church where
you get quite a few mosquito species. There's over one
hundred of them, but there is one in particular at
this time of year which does tend to increase in
numbers following high tides. So we've had a high tide
a little while ago that was quite big. It's about
eight meters, and then we had an earlier on a
(00:58):
mat a month before that which was high. So this
sort of sets up conditions for really big mosquito numbers,
which we do which we do try and control, but
with such big tis back to back, it does create
a bit of a problem for the local environment no
matter what we do.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, look, it may sound very naive of me, but
I had no idea whether that was what the cause
of it was, whether it was because we sort of
got a little bit of rain but not a huge amount.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I couldn't quite wrap my head around it.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, it's a bit of both. So I think what
actually happened was before, not the recent high type, but
the high tide before that. There was quite a bit
of rain just before it, which sort of dampened the
floodplane a little bit. And then we had those fairly
big tie come in, which is one of the larger
ones we've had in the last year or two. It
(01:47):
ran in a bit further, which crowded the situation where
there was a lot of mosquitoes hatching, which we did control.
We did get quite a few emerge, but we did
control a lot of that. And then the follow up
tie because the flood pain's been damped with dampened to
be with the fresh water, but also the really big
high tide about a month prior to the recent one
(02:08):
that set up conditions that right across the area surrounding Darwin,
and these floodplaines. There's been a lot of eggs deposited
at that real high water Lark watermark where the fish
can't get in. So when that floods in, the fish
can't quite get in there to eat or the lava.
And we get these big emergences of mosquitoes and we
(02:32):
do we do control for them, but unfortunately this top
of the mosquito can actually fly quite long distances, so
that's also part of the problem. So when you get
these really big tides that the whole of the intertitle
zone across the north can be producing mosquitoes, And obviously
they see the bright lights of Darwin and they think
(02:54):
they want to go out for a bit of a
party and you have a bit of a meal and
you know, a bit of a talking of some locals,
and that's that's a bit.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Of a problem. But I thought they're going to take
me away along the Esplanad this morning.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
There were so many of them down there.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, we've certainly had big numbers and it's been right
across and unfortunately it is it is like I said,
you know, they'll come in from from all over and
the areas we traditionally control, which does tend to keep
keep it lit on things. They were controlled. But you know,
the problem is the whole the whole of the north
(03:29):
is covered, so you're getting getting these mosquitoes coming in
from everywhere. So it's it is difficult to control when
you get these big events, and we just have to
I suppose, resort to to probably looking at our culaners
that we put out advising people that when the periods
of high mosquito abundance unlikely to occur following these tides,
(03:52):
and that people maybe cover up and they just don't
go out for that walk right in the middle of
the time when the mosquitoes are coming out, which will
be I suppose for next the next few days, next
week or so.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, so talk us through how long we are expecting
these high numbers for yeah, Well.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Usually what happens is about a week after the high tide,
the mosquitoes will will develop and emerge, and then we'll
get some higher numbers for well, usually it's about this
time of year, about eleven days ten eleven days, and
then they'll they'll they'll subside and then we'll get unfortunately
another high tide around the middle of the month, around
(04:31):
the twentieth I think before that, actually the seventeenth, and
that about a week after that. Again, well we'll get
an increase and then hopefully we'll get some rain that'll
create a change the conditions on the floodplane where they'll
be flooded and we won't get these these big cohorts
and mosquitoes coming through.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
So that'll be good.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Obviously, that will be a good thing when that happens.
In the meantime, though, we do need to make sure
that we're covering up right.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah, I'd be advising people to probably wear someone that's
star one, I guess, and they're probably not going to
do it. But if you can wear long sleeve clothes
and long pants if you're going out to do some
watering and things, loose fitting long sleeve and long pants
would be good. And also if you can't do that,
probably I would suggest some your choice repellents, usually deet
(05:25):
and the oil of eucalypus products and the picara and products,
so those sorts of products that are proven to repel
mosquitoes and homeowners if they if they're experiencing big problems
around their home, they can also do a barrier spray.
You can get these various brays from Bunnings or the
hardware shop and that'll last usually about six weeks if
(05:46):
it's out of the weather. So if there's a place
you like to sit outside, you can do that. And
there's also those pulse repellent products that you can buy
that give a like a fermo cell. Yeah, that do
work quite quite well up here.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Look, Steve, and I'm getting lots of messages just going Katie,
how much longer do we have to deal with these mozzies?
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah? Well, sort of hoping about you know, they'll start
to drop off, because they don't last forever, but hopefully
they'll drop off about an another week or two and
then the numbers will decline. This is probably the worst
that they are at the moment, and they should decline
over the next next week or so. Hoping that we
(06:34):
don't get any rain and the forecast is looking good
or we get either we don't get so I should
say we don't get a small amount of rain thirty
mils or we get a lot of rain on.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
The other Yes, good, good idea good plan.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And although the weather never does what you wanted to do,
but Steven, you know it's bad when the kids are
coming home from school going oh mum, there's mosquitos everywhere
on the oval, and then it's soccer last night. Well,
I think some of the teams were you know that
there was almost distracting from them actually playing.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Oh, yes, certainly. And I think that one of the
problems is it hasn't been like this for a while.
But it's just the tides at the sum of year.
You know, there's usually we can keep at what our
actions tend to keep the numbers down, but with such
high tides, it's it is difficult to control over such
(07:30):
a wide range and such such big ties. Probably we
do keep a handle, but you know, it's it is
an unusual event, and that the with these mosquitoes, they
tend to increase the sum of year and when we control,
I mean, I suppose the numbers are are suppressed, which
(07:50):
we have done, but they are so big that the
compression people are probably not noticing the amount of suppression
work that we're done.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So there's not so it's not even a matter where
anything additional can be done at this point.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Really, yeah, I mean we have, we have done additional stuff,
but it's one of those things, I mean, like when
you've got There comes a point when there's there's just
so many around there that we have to resort to.
People needed to take care of themselves and cover up
and use some repellent because.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
There's not a lot more you can do on those
big numbers.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, numbers are so big.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Oh well, we all need to get out there and
get our massy repellent to make sure that we've got
our got ourselves covered up. Any any favorites for you
when it comes to the best MASSI repellent, Stephen.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I prefer avoidance myself because I don't already mind myself.
This is my personal choice that the deep products don't
don't react well to my skin, so I do tend
to cover up.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, fairly, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Because there is a there are a few. I don't
want to scare people, but there are mosquito born diseases
that people can get up here. So it's probably best
to avoid mosquito if you can. And the good thing
to do. One good thing to do about that is
to probably look at our past calendars and then you
can see to see where these peak abundances are, I
(09:12):
shouldn't say peak, the higher abundances are, and you can
avoid walking your dog right in the middle of that window,
and maybe choose to go a day or two later,
or you know, kids sports sporting events have probably not
something you can post. It is hard to avoid, but
maybe it might make them run faster. Looks great, so
(09:32):
I probably will.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
No. Oh, Steven, I really appreciate you having your chat
with us this morning. Just you know, I think it's
important that people just sort of know what's going on
anyway and understand that it's going to be the case
for at least the next week or so. So we've
got to make sure that we take those extra precautions.
But like you touched on, I think that because we
sort of haven't seen such high numbers for a while,
(09:55):
it's more been the bit of a shock, and so
we're all going to then make sure that we're prepared,
you know, for the different and sporting events over the
coming days and weeks, or the different outdoor activities that
we do.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, certainly, certainly, And yeah, I think I mentioned before,
these tides are quite high because we've had back to
back ones. It has set us up for a period
where we are going to have mosquito abundances higher than
what people probably have experienced over the last few years.
But it certainly is something that does happen from time
to time and it is part of the natural environment
(10:27):
which we do up here, which is great and the
taste everyone enjoys. But one of the downfalls is occasionally,
based on any sort of tide events or rain events,
we do get abundances that sort of go out of
the average, and this just happens to be one of
those times. Yeah, So just people should be I suppose,
like you said, be aware when these things can happen.
(10:49):
And we do have calendars that do indicate this to people, but.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
People just jump online and find those on the Department
of Health website.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yeah, they're on the Department of Health webs We have
one for midges and we have one for the salt
Marsh mosquito, which is a top We can make these
predictions in advanced by about a year because we know
that there their abundances are based on usually on tides.
I mean they are affected by rain as well, but
(11:19):
definitely these tied events can can definitely well do trigger hatching.
So we can make these predictions well and truly in advance.
So if you've got an outdoor event that you're going
to plan. You can probably look at that and consult
that and go, well, maybe we'll do it next time.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, good idea, good thinking well.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
NTI Health Medical Entomology Operations Manager Stephen Frigger really appreciate
your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Thanks for having a chat with us and letting us
know what's going on.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Thanks Katie, I appreciate it chat.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Thank you.
Do we know that those mosquitos they seem like they
are out in absolute force.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
At the moment I was fearing being.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Taken away by those mossies along the esplanade this morning,
flying around.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
There's so many of them.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Now joining us on the line to tell us a
little bit more about what is going on. It's into
Health's Medical Entomology Operations Manager Stephen Frick.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good morning to you, Stephen.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Good morning, Katie. How are you going.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm very well, Stephen.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Those mossies they are out in huge numbers at the moment,
it feels, yeah, they are.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
It tends to be up here in the church where
you get quite a few mosquito species. There's over one
hundred of them, but there is one in particular at
this time of year which does tend to increase in
numbers following high tides. So we've had a high tide
a little while ago that was quite big. It's about
eight meters, and then we had an earlier on a
(00:58):
mat a month before that which was high. So this
sort of sets up conditions for really big mosquito numbers,
which we do which we do try and control, but
with such big tis back to back, it does create
a bit of a problem for the local environment no
matter what we do.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, look, it may sound very naive of me, but
I had no idea whether that was what the cause
of it was, whether it was because we sort of
got a little bit of rain but not a huge amount.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I couldn't quite wrap my head around it.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, it's a bit of both. So I think what
actually happened was before, not the recent high type, but
the high tide before that. There was quite a bit
of rain just before it, which sort of dampened the
floodplane a little bit. And then we had those fairly
big tie come in, which is one of the larger
ones we've had in the last year or two. It
(01:47):
ran in a bit further, which crowded the situation where
there was a lot of mosquitoes hatching, which we did control.
We did get quite a few emerge, but we did
control a lot of that. And then the follow up
tie because the flood pain's been damped with dampened to
be with the fresh water, but also the really big
high tide about a month prior to the recent one
(02:08):
that set up conditions that right across the area surrounding Darwin,
and these floodplaines. There's been a lot of eggs deposited
at that real high water Lark watermark where the fish
can't get in. So when that floods in, the fish
can't quite get in there to eat or the lava.
And we get these big emergences of mosquitoes and we
(02:32):
do we do control for them, but unfortunately this top
of the mosquito can actually fly quite long distances, so
that's also part of the problem. So when you get
these really big tides that the whole of the intertitle
zone across the north can be producing mosquitoes, And obviously
they see the bright lights of Darwin and they think
(02:54):
they want to go out for a bit of a
party and you have a bit of a meal and
you know, a bit of a talking of some locals,
and that's that's a bit.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Of a problem. But I thought they're going to take
me away along the Esplanad this morning.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
There were so many of them down there.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, we've certainly had big numbers and it's been right
across and unfortunately it is it is like I said,
you know, they'll come in from from all over and
the areas we traditionally control, which does tend to keep
keep it lit on things. They were controlled. But you know,
the problem is the whole the whole of the north
(03:29):
is covered, so you're getting getting these mosquitoes coming in
from everywhere. So it's it is difficult to control when
you get these big events, and we just have to
I suppose, resort to to probably looking at our culaners
that we put out advising people that when the periods
of high mosquito abundance unlikely to occur following these tides,
(03:52):
and that people maybe cover up and they just don't
go out for that walk right in the middle of
the time when the mosquitoes are coming out, which will
be I suppose for next the next few days, next
week or so.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, so talk us through how long we are expecting
these high numbers for yeah, Well.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Usually what happens is about a week after the high tide,
the mosquitoes will will develop and emerge, and then we'll
get some higher numbers for well, usually it's about this
time of year, about eleven days ten eleven days, and
then they'll they'll they'll subside and then we'll get unfortunately
another high tide around the middle of the month, around
(04:31):
the twentieth I think before that, actually the seventeenth, and
that about a week after that. Again, well we'll get
an increase and then hopefully we'll get some rain that'll
create a change the conditions on the floodplane where they'll
be flooded and we won't get these these big cohorts
and mosquitoes coming through.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
So that'll be good.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Obviously, that will be a good thing when that happens.
In the meantime, though, we do need to make sure
that we're covering up right.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah, I'd be advising people to probably wear someone that's
star one, I guess, and they're probably not going to
do it. But if you can wear long sleeve clothes
and long pants if you're going out to do some
watering and things, loose fitting long sleeve and long pants
would be good. And also if you can't do that,
probably I would suggest some your choice repellents, usually deet
(05:25):
and the oil of eucalypus products and the picara and products,
so those sorts of products that are proven to repel
mosquitoes and homeowners if they if they're experiencing big problems
around their home, they can also do a barrier spray.
You can get these various brays from Bunnings or the
hardware shop and that'll last usually about six weeks if
(05:46):
it's out of the weather. So if there's a place
you like to sit outside, you can do that. And
there's also those pulse repellent products that you can buy
that give a like a fermo cell. Yeah, that do
work quite quite well up here.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Look, Steve, and I'm getting lots of messages just going Katie,
how much longer do we have to deal with these mozzies?
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah? Well, sort of hoping about you know, they'll start
to drop off, because they don't last forever, but hopefully
they'll drop off about an another week or two and
then the numbers will decline. This is probably the worst
that they are at the moment, and they should decline
over the next next week or so. Hoping that we
(06:34):
don't get any rain and the forecast is looking good
or we get either we don't get so I should
say we don't get a small amount of rain thirty
mils or we get a lot of rain on.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
The other Yes, good, good idea good plan.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And although the weather never does what you wanted to do,
but Steven, you know it's bad when the kids are
coming home from school going oh mum, there's mosquitos everywhere
on the oval, and then it's soccer last night. Well,
I think some of the teams were you know that
there was almost distracting from them actually playing.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Oh, yes, certainly. And I think that one of the
problems is it hasn't been like this for a while.
But it's just the tides at the sum of year.
You know, there's usually we can keep at what our
actions tend to keep the numbers down, but with such
high tides, it's it is difficult to control over such
(07:30):
a wide range and such such big ties. Probably we
do keep a handle, but you know, it's it is
an unusual event, and that the with these mosquitoes, they
tend to increase the sum of year and when we control,
I mean, I suppose the numbers are are suppressed, which
(07:50):
we have done, but they are so big that the
compression people are probably not noticing the amount of suppression
work that we're done.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So there's not so it's not even a matter where
anything additional can be done at this point.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Really, yeah, I mean we have, we have done additional stuff,
but it's one of those things, I mean, like when
you've got There comes a point when there's there's just
so many around there that we have to resort to.
People needed to take care of themselves and cover up
and use some repellent because.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
There's not a lot more you can do on those
big numbers.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, numbers are so big.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Oh well, we all need to get out there and
get our massy repellent to make sure that we've got
our got ourselves covered up. Any any favorites for you
when it comes to the best MASSI repellent, Stephen.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I prefer avoidance myself because I don't already mind myself.
This is my personal choice that the deep products don't
don't react well to my skin, so I do tend
to cover up.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, fairly, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Because there is a there are a few. I don't
want to scare people, but there are mosquito born diseases
that people can get up here. So it's probably best
to avoid mosquito if you can. And the good thing
to do. One good thing to do about that is
to probably look at our past calendars and then you
can see to see where these peak abundances are, I
(09:12):
shouldn't say peak, the higher abundances are, and you can
avoid walking your dog right in the middle of that window,
and maybe choose to go a day or two later,
or you know, kids sports sporting events have probably not
something you can post. It is hard to avoid, but
maybe it might make them run faster. Looks great, so
(09:32):
I probably will.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
No. Oh, Steven, I really appreciate you having your chat
with us this morning. Just you know, I think it's
important that people just sort of know what's going on
anyway and understand that it's going to be the case
for at least the next week or so. So we've
got to make sure that we take those extra precautions.
But like you touched on, I think that because we
sort of haven't seen such high numbers for a while,
(09:55):
it's more been the bit of a shock, and so
we're all going to then make sure that we're prepared,
you know, for the different and sporting events over the
coming days and weeks, or the different outdoor activities that
we do.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, certainly, certainly, And yeah, I think I mentioned before,
these tides are quite high because we've had back to
back ones. It has set us up for a period
where we are going to have mosquito abundances higher than
what people probably have experienced over the last few years.
But it certainly is something that does happen from time
to time and it is part of the natural environment
(10:27):
which we do up here, which is great and the
taste everyone enjoys. But one of the downfalls is occasionally,
based on any sort of tide events or rain events,
we do get abundances that sort of go out of
the average, and this just happens to be one of
those times. Yeah, So just people should be I suppose,
like you said, be aware when these things can happen.
(10:49):
And we do have calendars that do indicate this to people, but.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
People just jump online and find those on the Department
of Health website.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yeah, they're on the Department of Health webs We have
one for midges and we have one for the salt
Marsh mosquito, which is a top We can make these
predictions in advanced by about a year because we know
that there their abundances are based on usually on tides.
I mean they are affected by rain as well, but
(11:19):
definitely these tied events can can definitely well do trigger hatching.
So we can make these predictions well and truly in advance.
So if you've got an outdoor event that you're going
to plan. You can probably look at that and consult
that and go, well, maybe we'll do it next time.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, good idea, good thinking well.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
NTI Health Medical Entomology Operations Manager Stephen Frigger really appreciate
your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Thanks for having a chat with us and letting us
know what's going on.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Thanks Katie, I appreciate it chat.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Thank you.
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