City to begin ground spraying for mosquitos
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The first phase of a citywide ground spraying mission for mosquitos will begin Friday, Aug. 7, according to the City of Minot.
The spraying will take place in an area in west-northwest Minot identified in the city's plan as Block 2. The team will begin spraying at 9:45 p.m., about a half hour after sunset. It estimates roughly four hours to complete Block 2.
The city will not be spraying sections of town by numeric order of the blocks. Each of the blocks should take just one night to complete, weather permitting.The city will be releasing information on the area to be sprayed each evening as soon as weather determinations are made. Announcements will go out through the city's alert system. Residents who have not already signed up can do so on the city's website. Location announcements also will be posted on the website.
The spraying process could take up to two weeks to complete, the city estimates. Residents can expect to see mosquito spray trucks traveling after dark and perpendicular to the wind direction.
The city announced on July 30 it was moving toward a second round of mosquito control in response to a confirmation of West Nile virus in a northwest Minot mosquito sample sent to North Dakota Health and Human Services.
The ground-spray application will use the chemical permethrin, which is listed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a caution chemical, which is the least toxic of the three pesticide product labels.
The city previously reported the permethrin will be distributed using Ultra Low Volume sprayers. Fog'Em Mosquito Control was awarded the mosquito surveillance contract early this spring. The cost of the ground spray is $26,238 in the vector control line of the 2026 budget, which the city has remaining after one previous aerial spray prior to the North Dakota State Fair in July.
In some previous years the city has requested a second aerial spraying later in the summer through Minot Air Force Base and the Ohio Air National Guard. Those entities are not offering that option this year, according to information presented to the Minot City Council in July.