Youngstown Air Reserve unit plans mosquito mission to N.D.

WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) _ A Mahoning Valley-based unit of the U.S. Air Force Reserve has scheduled mosquito spraying in a North Dakota community.

Residents of Williston voted 67 percent to 33 percent last month to pay another $2 a month to their mosquito control district to help pay for the Vienna, Ohio-based unit to use C-130 planes to spray for mosquitoes.

It is tentatively scheduled for late May and mid-June. Officials are completing an environmental study to firm up details, such as what chemical will be used.

Mark Breidenbaugh, chief entomologist for the unit at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, said “That’s all part of our training for our wartime mission, which is mosquito control, and to keep troops safe from these same types of diseases that people would be concerned about here.”

Breidenbaugh said he expects officials to choose a mosquito larvicide that affects mosquitoes and a few other aquatic flies but does not harm people.

The unit has sprayed for mosquitoes in North Dakota before, at the Air Force bases in Grand Forks and Minot.

The environmental study for the Williston region must be approved by Williston officials, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.