Shire of Capel mosquito plague starts to bite

A festering mosquito problem that has plagued a South West shire for decades has finally reached boiling point, with residents and businesses demanding action. The Capel Shire is being urged to deal with the ongoing issue which has long affected the health, wellbeing and even income of residents of Stratham, Gelorup and Dalyellup and surrounding suburbs. The problem has become so bad that dozens of locals packed out a special electors’ meeting earlier this month, with every single motion raised by the public relating to the Shire’s management of the mosquito problem. Marie Bowen operates a bed and breakfast from her home in Stratham but said guests were turned off by the pests, with up to 40 at a time flying into the house every time the front door was opened. “I have to warn everyone after they have made the booking and paid their deposit that there could be lots of mosquitoes and they need to protect themselves,” she said. “As I’m guiding people from their car to the front door, they are saying ‘oh God, look at all the mosquitoes’ and there are at least 30-40 of them following them into the house. “I have to quickly shut the door and show them where the mosquito repellent is and tell them it’s best to go buy some for when they go out, because that’s what the council says I have to do.” Seamstress Stacey Deegan Dolan lives on a property on the edge of Capel townsite and said the mosquito issue was just as bad in areas further away from the coast. Ms Dolan contracted Ross River virus in October last year and her entire life was put on hold while she recovered. “When I got the virus initially I couldn’t work at all; I had no physical grip in my hands for nearly three months,” she said. “It ended up to the point when I had pain in my hand and elbows and feet so bad I actually couldn’t even walk. “When I did get back to work, I ended up on light duties but I spent six months on strong pain relief just to be able to function.” Ms Dolan said even a year on she was still being affected by symptoms of the virus. “I am currently experiencing another flare-up at the moment and that is affecting my feet; it feels like there are knifes being shoved up into the bottom of your feet,” she said. “It’s generally that feeling of tightness and pain. I have to seek constant remedial message to try and help my joints and muscles just to function on a weekly basis; it’s really challenging.” Stratham resident Frances Calabrese has seen first-hand how the problem has escalated over the past five decades living in the area. “I’ve lived in this area my entire life and I would say the last 10 years, every single year is worse; some years are worse than others, but as a trend they’re just getting worse,” she said. “It just affects every factor of your life; you do not go outside early morning and you do not go outside after dusk because, I can’t even describe it, you would just have to see it. It is like plague proportion, the air is black.” Mrs Calabrese said the mosquitoes were no longer just a health problem as it was affecting her family’s lifestyle, mental health and finances. “We would argue that there’s a mental health aspect to the issue; my husband gets so frustrated as he is very much an outdoors person and it’s really hard for him being either inside or being eaten alive,” she said. “We spend so much money to deal with it. We’ve taken to actually importing a spray that we use to spray ourselves and around the base of every single tree and fence post. “We do as much as we possibly can to try and protect ourselves and horses but that only lasts for four hours, so we go through a lot of it and it adds up.” Mrs Calabrese is in the process of setting up an agistment centre on her property but is “terrified” to advertise due to the mosquitoes affecting the horses. “How can we advertise ‘come and agist your horse here’ when they are going to get attacked by mosquitoes?” she said. “We had to sell one of our own horses because he was so allergic to a mosquito bite; we couldn’t keep him because we could not manage him in this area. “It is destroying our potential business plan as well as everything else in our lives.” Mrs Calabrese’s daughter Charlotte, 19, is a horsewoman living in Stratham on a neighbouring property and said her career had suffered because of mosquito-borne diseases. “You can tell when the horses have Ross River because they are lame, really uneven, can’t be ridden and obviously super sore and stiff,” Miss Calabrese said. “If it’s not Ross River, the horses just aren’t sleeping because they spend all night kicking at the mosquitoes. “We sprayed them with the ... strongest repellent you can get, yet by the morning they are covered in welts and there is nothing we can do.” Charlotte, shown in the main picture, has contracted Ross River virus and Barmah Forest virus and said even years later it was debilitating. “On a bad day, my boyfriend has to carry me downstairs in the morning,” she said. “I’ve still not gotten over the joint pain. I still have random inflammation and flares from the Barmah Forest and it just makes my job really hard.” Among the issues brought up at a council meeting on October 14 were concerns over the Capel Shire’s management of mosquitoes throughout its coastal, wetland and suburban areas, as well as mosquito monitoring data collected by the Shire and Department of Health not being made public. Capel Shire principal environmental health officer Naomi Milner said the mosquito mitigation process involved larviciding, in which the insects were identified and controlled at the larval stage before they became biting adults. Larviciding of the wetlands is carried out annually by a helicopter on the fringes of wetlands and coast in known mosquito breeding areas. Ms Milner said the mosquito program used was the most effective to manage the problem. “There is alignment of our program with what is happening across the country, what is happening overseas — if there was a better program we would be doing it,” she said. “We recognise the special meeting was a good opportunity to speak to people who may have never phoned us up to ask and the program isn’t a secret. “It’s been running for over 10 years and we are very open to taking phone calls and providing that information.” Ms Bowen said the lack of transparency of how the issue was being managed was a double standard from the Shire as it continued to charge her money to run her AirBnB. “When I applied for a bed and breakfast licence, I did all the right things and jumped through all the hoops I had to jump through, waited three to four months to finally get my licence, only to be told (by the Shire) I must warn every single guest of the concerns of the mosquitoes,” she said. “I haven’t even mentioned the virus to guests and I think I have to, but if I do I have a feeling there will be a negative impact, and yet the council has charged me money to get a licence to attract people to Stratham. “Where is the data and information about what is being done on this issue? “How can I show it to my guests when it’s not even made public? “Capel Shire want to have tourists visit, it benefits the community, but from my point of view if I saw that they had a mosquito problem, I would be put off from that.” Bunbury MLA Don Punch said the Shire needed to be more transparent with its community about such a big health risk. “I do think the Capel Shire council in the past has not been as clear with the community about what should be done or engage with the community about what they can do to contribute towards solving the problem,” he said. “The Shire has to recognise there’s a significant problem and I’m very happy to work with the Shire to get whatever support I can get from other agencies to support their efforts, but the Shire has got to lead the community conversation and what are the best options for dealing with the problem.” Mr Punch said the attitude towards the issue was hopefully going to change as fresh faces joined the council. “There’s a new CEO, there’s a new Shire president, so there’s an opportunity for a fresh start to really look at how they can engage with the community to address a local problem,” he said. “It’s excellent they had the community meeting and out of that there’s opportunity for new dialogue and I’m sure the new council will have a much more open perspective in terms of engaging with the community on the issue.” Shire chief executive Gordon MacMile said the electors’ meeting highlighted concerns from both the council and the community. “There was a lot of information about the mosquito management program and the different roles the Shire and the State Government take on that I think the community weren’t aware about,” he said. “There was an opportunity for us to learn how we can probably better communicate with the community about some of the things that are going on as part of our mosquito treatment.”

Shire of Capel mosquito plague starts to bite

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