Mosquitos have been a bigger pest than usual this summer in the Falconer area and much of the rest of the region as well.

The mosquitos haven’t been a public health issue this summer, with no cases of West Nile Virus or Eastern Equine Encephalitis found in any of the testing pools in Chautauqua County. The lack of a public health issue doesn’t mean we shouldn’t find a way to fix the problem, however.

The first thing to be done is eliminating standing water on private property. Any homeowner dealing with mosquitos can work on drainage to eliminate the standing water that serves as a mosquito’s breeding ground. Tips include disposing of outdoor containers that hold water, removing discarded tires, drilling holes in the bottom of recycling containers that are kept outdoors, cleaning clogged rain gutters, turning over wheelbarrows when not in use, changing water in the birdbaths at least every four days, clearing vegetation and debris from edges of ponds, cleaning chlorinated swimming pools, outdoor saunas and hot tubs, draining water from pool covers, and using landscaping to eliminate low spots where standing water accumulates.

For other areas, however, the county and municipalities need to be more proactive in dealing with these sort of quality of life issues. Tom Erlandson, Chautauqua County Board of Health member, told members during a meeting Monday the areas with the most standing water in Falconer are covered with trees. The tree cover will make aerial spraying ineffective, he said before saying larvacides in that area are likely to be a better option.

Of course, it’s September when that recommendation is made. Summer is over. Families will be spending much less time outside. Millrace Park in Falconer, one of the primary infestation sites, won’t see nearly as much use until next year. And in the meantime, families in the Falconer area have seen summer plans hampered by swarms of mosquitos.

There is no reason for this problem not to have been solved long ago. Mosquitos have been an issue in Falconer for more than a decade according to clips from The Post-Journal’s library. Falconer has been dealing with mosquito issues publicly since at least 1997. Then, a preferred approach from Robert Lincoln, then the assistant director of environmental health services, was carbon dioxide to be used in making dried ice. According to Lincoln, as mosquitoes approach the dry ice attractant, they see a small light that guides them to the trap and are sucked into it by a fan. From there, the collected mosquitoes were brought to the Health Department for species identification to help determine breeding sites and some are sent to the state Health Department’s laboratory in Albany to determine if they are carrying specific viruses. In 1998, Patricia J. Fales, veterinarian and chairwoman of Falconer’s beautification committee, headed a project installing bat houses in the village. She said at the time a noted naturalist reported that 10 bats can consume up to 50,000 flying insects every night. In an article from 2004, a second mosquito-borne virus was found in the area. In 2005, suggestions included using a little burner that keeps mosquitoes away and using predators and parasites, such as ladybugs and nematodes.

It is time, once and for all, for area officials to develop a plan to deal with Falconer’s mosquito problems.

Seventeen years is long enough.