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Norfolk County Already Fighting Mosquitoes

HOLBROOK (CBS) -- On a hill in Holbrook, a chopper touches down for an ammo reload. It comes by the bagful and looks a little like granola.

"It's corn cob, the bacteria is glued onto it," said Dave Lawson of the Norfolk County Mosquito Control Project.

That bacteria is toxic only to populations most humans would be happy to live without: mosquito and black fly larvae.

For the last decade in Norfolk County, this aerial assault on mosquito larvae has been a spring ritual.

"The spring mosquitoes are guaranteed. We know they're there, we can hit it," said Lawson.

WBZ-TV's Peg Rusconi reports.

Those mosquitoes exist only as larvae at this point in time, in places with standing water. Mosquito control officials target wetlands, hoping the larvacide they're dropping from those helicopters will keep the larvae from taking wing.

"That's the goal. So if we're successful in the wetlands where we're treating that, less in neighborhoods in the summer," said Lawson.

Summer is when we notice the mosquitoes most. It's also when they are most likely to carry dangerous diseases such as Eastern Equine Encephalitis and West Nile virus.

Said Lawson, "We think it's going to be a normal spring, but that's based on what we're seeing right now."

As for what we might see this summer, even an expert like Lawson can't predict. It's entirely dependent on the amount of rain in our future.

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