GYSINGE, SANDVIKEN Lars Pers i Fors.
By that name of Maria Brook the homestead is known. The place has been inhabited since the 16th century.
Now the first ones to greet you are the chickens and ducks, and further back behind the red mud residential houses is the kuttula. There are 48 milking goats, 14 yearlings and two goats.
Goats and honey are Brook’s current main livelihood. Groups of visitors also come to the farm, but Brook has received only a few of them so far.
– I would like to develop it, but I haven’t started, partly because of the mosquitoes, Brook explains.
Now there are only one or two forest mosquitoes in the bunch, because the control at the end of May and the beginning of June was successful. An attack copter also visited Brook’s lands.
Without control, we wouldn’t be standing outside greeting goats.
– Imagine a sunny summer day, the sky is blue and the temperature is 25 degrees. You can’t go outside because you will be attacked by mosquitoes. You must have plenty of clothing, a mosquito hat, boots and gloves. And you really can’t do farm work outside.
– It is very difficult, especially mentally, says Brook.
Brook says that already in January, fear creeps into his mind: is there a lot of snow further north, which when it melts will raise the water level in the Dala river and form ponds in the forests. If so, it means fighting mosquitoes.
Locals harnessed to monitor the water level
Also Rolf Lunden has claimed his childhood home on the banks of the Dala river. Lunden is one of the local “mosquito watchers”, of which there are now forty.
Their task is, among other things, to monitor the differences in the level of the river surface, which can be up to one and a half meters. It is affected by the melting waters of northern Sweden, runoff from hydroelectric power plants and rain. When the surface rises, the pier facing the river slopes upward.
Lunden grabs his cell phone from his pocket and shows the update screen. There are fluctuations, but there is still a way to reach the critical limit. Right now the mosquitoes are not getting on the neck.
It was different last fall. Early summer control was successful, but for the end of summer there was no money for helicopter flights and no biological control agent. The larvae of flood mosquitoes were able to develop and mosquito hell was unleashed again.
– Last summer wasn’t the worst, but it was difficult. You can’t be outside because these mosquitoes are so aggressive and they’re on you all day. Not only in the evenings but also during the day in the sunshine.
The newest of Lunden’s snacking spots is a small “orangeriet”, i.e. a greenhouse, whose almost wall-length windows offer a good view of the beautiful river landscape. Maybe also during the mosquito season, when you keep the door firmly closed.
There is knowledge, but no money
Jan Lundström is a doctor of medicine who has been working on mosquito control since the turn of the millennium. Currently, Lundström’s colleagues are doing this year’s mapping in an area that may even be the most mosquito-dense in Europe. Another similar area can be found in France.
Over the course of twenty years, knowledge has accumulated about the phenomenon, which has haunted the banks of the Dala River apparently always, maybe even worse in the past, Lundström thinks.
At the beginning of the millennium, Lundstöm and his colleagues discovered that if the area were to be mapped in height, the control could be concentrated in the areas where the larvae of flood mosquitoes thrive. The project was expensive and extended closer to the territory of ten municipalities.
However, the mapping was done and it is absolutely central to the current defense. Last year, the pesticide was applied to 14,000 hectares.
– We think that this is a kind of ecological surgery. We know quickly, even in difficult terrain, where the mosquito larvae are and how many there are. In addition, we use a biological pesticide that only destroys these larvae, Lundströn explains.
Mosquitoes make summer a game for nerves
There are close to half a hundred different mosquito species in Sweden, but the most diabolical of them is the flood mosquito (Aedes sticticus), which Lundström and the locals are fighting against. The control has to be done at just the right time, so that the larvae of the flood mosquitoes do not get to hatch. The time window for control is one week.
This year, the timing of the early summer defenses was successful. Lundström grabs one bloodsucker from his palm, which turns out to be a forest mosquito. They hatch at a different time than flood mosquitoes, and are not the same quality of life spoilers as flood mosquitoes.
Without flood mosquito control, tourists, fishing enthusiasts and merchants’ customers will disappear from the area. Organizing summer events and open-air concerts is a game of nerves, as are family parties, Lundström lists.
But according to Lundström, knowledge, staff and equipment alone are not enough to eradicate mosquitoes. There must be money for helicopter flights.
– Last year was a disaster. We didn’t get enough money from the government to buy enough pesticide. There was also no money for helicopter flights.
According to Lundström, an average of three defenses are needed each year. In late spring, the government granted additional funds for mosquito control, but according to Lundström, the money has not yet been transferred to the local government. Therefore, it is still uncertain whether the end-of-summer control would be successful this year as well, if it were needed.
Swedish Minister of Climate and Environment, Liberal Party Romina Pourmokhtari has not visited the area because he says he is hypersensitive to mosquito bites.