Los Banos Rotary Club History
Peluso Heads Rotary Club

In a very brief ceremony at the beginning of the Rotary Club luncheon Tuesday noon newly elected president Frank Peluso assumed the leadership of the club and accepted the symbolic president's gavel from retiring president, Bill Woo. Bill confined his official "swan song" to less than a minute, thanking the club membership and his numerous committeemen for their cooperation during the past year and extending best wishes to the new president for a successful year. Peluso replied in the same brevity, expressing his appreciation to him as president, and saying he would fulfill the obligations of office the best of his ability.

Abatement Manager
Is Speaker

Edgar Smith, manager of the Merced County Mosquito Abatement District, filled in as program speaker, replacing County Road Commissioner Wm. McCanless, who it was announced has apparently "got stuck in one of his own chuck holes" and failed to arrive.

Rather than a formal talk, Smith immediately opened the meeting to a question and answer forum on the mosquito problem in this county.
Asked as to the increased impotency of D.D.T. insecticide and its effect on mosquito control in this county, Smith explained that in certain areas in the county a normal dosage of DDT, which was almost 100 per cent effective four years ago is almost wholly ineffective today; and a triple dose in the same area is only partially effective. Mosquitoes in an area that has been treated with DDT over a period of three or four years developed in immunity to the insecticide five to seven times greater than in the initial treatment.
As a result, the district is now using three or four other types of insecticides, some costing from eight to ten times as much as DDT. This fact, Smith said, is reflected in the amount of control work that can be done with the limited funds available.

As to "comfort control" work in the more thickly populated areas, Smith explained that the fogging or smoke trucks can operate effectively only under very limited and favorable weather conditions; and that such control is effectively only under very limited and favorable weather conditions; and that such control is effective only on the existing adult crop of mosquitoes. To be effective, Smith said the wind must not be greater than 3 to 5 miles an hour, and temperature of the ground must be nearly that of the air—otherwise the fog produced by the spray trucks rises quickly up into the sky and does no good.

Smith also explained that the adulticiding or fogging of mosquitoes is only an immediate remedy, effective for only one or two days until new hordes arrive from the surrounding rural areas.

Questioned further as to the increasing ineffectiveness of DDT and its future effect on mosquito control work, Smith said it only emphasizes the importance of permanent elimination of mosquito breeding grounds, which is mostly a matter of removing standing water from field and pasture lands. As an example he cited certain permanent pasture lands in the Merced area, owned by Crocker-Huffman. Ten years ago this pasture was producing billions of mosquitoes a year. Installation of a proper drainage system and planting of mosquito fish in the main drain ditches has not only eliminated most of the mosquitoes in that area, but has improved the yield of the pasture and resulted in definite weight gains for the cattle feeding there. On one such field, Smith said, the district spent $1275 on aerial spray control three years ago. The year following installation of a $200 drainage project the abatement district spent $200 to maintain mosquito control in the same area.
In connection with permanent control, Smith also explained that in order to assist farmers with their own drainage projects the district has purchased a dragline, heavy tractor and ditching machine, which is rented to the farmer on a cost basis. This service, he said, is finding ready acceptance throughout the county, and at the present time the dragline has three months of steady work ahead.

Questioned as to the district's financial needs for the coming year, Smith explained the district directors have prepared two proposed budgets, one based on actual need for a thorough job of control and the other on what can be accomplished with funds provided by the tax rate to which the county board of supervisors have limited the district in the past three years. The recommended budget, Smith said, would call for an increase of 7 or 8 cents in the tax rate—which to the average property owner in this county would amount to about $2.25 a year. At the present time, he said, the district is operating on a total budget of $154,500, including a $40,000 grant from the state, which is the largest state grant made to any mosquito abatement area in California. Merced county has the unenviable distinction or having the largest and greatest problem in the state.

By way of comparison, Smith said that on a basis of per square mile of problem area, Merced county spends approximately $120.00. Neighboring Turlock district spends $180 per square mile for control; Modesto district, $215 and Fresno county $300 per square mile of problem area.

July 4, 1952

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