I'm hoping that you can help me!!

Rainier Audubon's Birds In The Balance Committee has been working on
Violet-green Swallow boxes. This last month we installed 125 boxes in the city
parks of 4 of our local cities.

One of the cities was telling us about a wetland where they have to treat for
mosquitoes due to the proximity of houses to the wetland. They are starting a
brush spraying program the 1st week of May using the products Scourge and
Permanone. They are not doing any spraying on the water.

I asked the city if they would consider a natural predator approach to the
mosquito problem and they were very receptive. I want to provide them with
information on an integrated pest management approach including utilizing birds
like the swallows along with organisms that might attack the mosquito eggs.

Does anyone have scientific information regarding this natural approach to
mosquito control? I really need facts and data to give to the city before they
can consider a solution other than spraying.

I am hoping that someone somewhere has done a study and/or implemented a natural
mosquito control program. I appreciate any help/advice you can give!!!

Also, if anyone needs a good Violet-green Swallow box plan, send me your name
and address and I'll mail you a copy! Our box design has been used for quite
some time and is known to be successful! We are getting a great positive
response from the cities to our parks project and are also selling lots of boxes
to the public! We also use them as incentives for people to sponsor at the $50
or above level for our BirdAThon. We have monitoring teams set up for our
park-installed boxes and have a Swallow "Report Card" that is attached to each
box that goes to our members or the public so that they will respond back to us
on the success of their box.

Thanks for your help!!!

Debbie Fisher
Rainier Audubon
P.O. Box 778
Auburn, WA 98071
71634.144 at compuserve.com
or
bb609 at scn.org (free e-mail, difficult editor)