New Jersey already has 28 confirmed cases of Zika, all travel related so far. Here's what you can do to help
Hundreds of mosquitoes swarmed a pile of discarded tires behind a Mercer County auto repair shop last week as Mark Baker donned a backpack that resembled something out of the Ghostbusters prop department.
His target, however, was not the bugs buzzing in the air. It was their thousands of offspring currently in the larvae stage in the stagnant water pooled inside the tires.
An Aedes albopictus mosquito feeding. (Photo by James Gathany/ Centers for Disease Control) After collecting samples of the murky water for testing, Baker, an employee of the Mercer County Mosquito Control commission, pumped larvicide from his backpack to kill the would-be mosquitoes before they could take flight.
Baker is among those on the front lines in New Jersey's efforts to thwart the spreading threat of Zika, a virus carried by mosquitoes that can cause a severe birth defect called microcephaly. The neurological condition is associated with an abnormally small head and lifelong disabilities.
New Jersey already has 28 confirmed cases of Zika, all travel related so far. On May 31, a baby born with Zika was born at Hackensack University Medical Center after the mother contracted the virus in her native country of Honduras.
There is no vaccine or cure for Zika.
The prime season for mosquitoes in New Jersey just getting started and could last until the first frosts of October.
7 reasons N.J. needs to worry about Zika
Every county in the state has a local agency tasked with annual mosquito control efforts to help prevent longstanding threats from blood-borne pathogens and more recent concerns over new viruses like Zika and West Nile.
The mosquito control strategy involving insecticides and larvicides remains largely unchanged despite potential for Zika to spread, the county experts said.
Residents and business owners, however, can make a difference by eliminating the small pockets of stagnant water where mosquito breeding occurs, the experts said.
"Our best weapon against all mosquito-borne illnesses is cooperation from our public," Burlington County spokesman Eric Arpert said. "We need to make people aware of what kind of environments mosquitoes thrive in. People need to empty buckets and other containers after rain."
Common breeding grounds include planters, toys, kiddie pools, birdbaths, flowerpots, storage bins and trash containers, which should be regularly cleared of collecting rain water, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
In Middlesex County, two towns launched a public information campaign about the danger of water in untended backyard pools of homes still vacant from the housing crisis.
Mosquito control agencies are also constantly collecting samples to track the potential threat.
This is the most important defense against mosquito-born illnesses.
"We do an awful lot of mosquito surveillance," said Jennifer Gruener, superintendent of the Warren County Mosquito Commission. "There are 43 different mosquitoes in NJ. The first thing we do is sample water for larvae and bring larvae back to the lab."
So far, the mosquito most associated with the spread of Zika has not been found in New Jersey, said Michael Romanowski, superintendent of Ocean County Mosquito Extermination Commission said.
Of greater concern is the Asian tiger mosquito, which is prevalent in New Jersey, but none have tested positive for Zika to date, Romanowski said.
"Each year we send thousands of mosquitoes to the state health department to test for viruses," Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes said. "If Zika-virus-positive mosquitoes are found, Mercer County's mosquito control would immediately launch intensive control operations in that area to kill adult mosquitoes."
Cape May County's mosquito control agency has the only county-based lab that can test mosquitoes for Zika. Other counties may ship samples to the lab for testing, for a fee, said Peter Bosak, superintendent of the Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control.
"We can collect our own mosquitoes, sort them, put them into a database, pick out the ones that we are concerned with regarding the different viruses that we're interested in," Bosak said. Then a microbiologist runs test for various viruses.
"We have a plan in the works to address any Zika," Bozak said. "We actually have traps around the county."
Thomas Regan may be reached at tregan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Thomas_P_Regan. Find NJ.com on Facebook.