100 Years of Mosquito Control in Cape May County

Mosquitoes – the most studied insect in the world, known as a nuisance factor to us all. Between 1800 and 1900, there was no organized form of mosquito control in New Jersey, leaving huge mosquito hoards to attack the East Coast, especially Cape May County.
The “patriarch” of the beginning of mosquito control in New Jersey is known as Dr. John B. Smith of Rutgers University. Smith was not a classically trained entomologist; he began his professional career in law, but he got tired of this quickly. His intense interest in all things entomological eventually led to his employment at Rutgers where he first tackled agricultural pest problems facing New Jersey’s farmers, creating his vision of mosquito control in New Jersey.
The mosquito scourge in New Jersey was so vast in the late 1800s that most individuals at the time believed that controlling mosquitoes was preposterous. But Smith believed otherwise, and in 1900 he successfully secured a small sum of money from the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES) for a preliminary investigation into the mosquito problem.
In 1904, Smith presented the New Jersey Senate with his research findings on mosquitoes’ habits, life history and more. An important revelation emerging from this work was the ecology of the salt marsh mosquito (Aedes sollicitans), aka the state bird of New Jersey. Dr. Smith discovered, mostly through studies in Cape May County, that this species traveled far inland, making contact with nearly three-fourths of the state’s population.
Through this discovery, the idea of ditching and draining the salt marsh was developed as a means of controlling the salt marsh mosquito. It is unknown who developed this idea specifically, but Smith was without a doubt one of its greatest proponents. By the time of Smith’s death in 1912, nearly 40,000 acres of salt marsh had been drained involving five million feet of ditch. In the same year, the State Legislature passed a bill known as the County Mosquito Extermination Commission Law.
This new law allowed the formation of a non-paid mosquito commission in each of New Jersey’s counties that would create and operate a mosquito control agency under the direction of the NJAES. This led to the creation of the Cape May County Mosquito Extermination Commission in 1915, along with a number of other county mosquito control agencies, in an attempt to control the mosquito plague.
The first official organizational meeting of the Commission was held on October 15, 1915 at the old Bellevue Hotel in Cape May Court House. To this day, Dr. Peter Bosak, the current superintendent of what is now known as the Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control, has the documented minutes from the original meeting and every meeting since.
The Commission grew quickly through the 1920s and 1930s, expending most of its efforts on ditching the salt marsh. The Commission’s efforts along with other East Coast counties’ efforts became a huge part of the development of shore communities; land once uninhabitable soon became prime real estate and so began the annual summer pilgrimage to the Jersey shore. The history of mosquito control in Cape May County and its contribution to developing the community is so important that it is referenced multiple times in the book “The Mosquito Crusades” by Gordon Patterson.
After many years of rapid expansion, in early 1943, the U.S. Army requested the use of a building owned by the Commission, leading to the resolution of the U.S. Government leasing the building known as Barracks #1. From 1943 to 1945, the U.S. Army operated a German prisoner of war camp on the grounds of the Commission, which led to prison labor being used in mosquito work in the spring of 1945.
If you were a Baby Boomer growing up on the East Coast, you may share Dr. Bosak’s childhood memory of hearing the mosquito control spray truck and running through the fog as the truck made its way down the street. But despite all the efforts of the Cape May County Mosquito Extermination Commission and other counties, in 1959, New Jersey first recorded an outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), resulting in 33 known cases and 21 deaths.
Over the next few years, the Commission’s continued mosquito research and control efforts served to keep mosquito-borne disease at low levels. In 1973, the Commission hired Judy Hansen as superintendent of the Commission. Judy has served on the Commission for 45 years, receiving much recognition and praise. In addition to her many duties as superintendent, Judy served twice as president of the New Jersey Mosquito Control Association, and in 1989 was the first woman elected president of the American Mosquito Control Association.
Around the time of Judy’s hire, Open Marsh Water Management (OMWM) became an integral part of the mosquito control program in Cape May County, and it remains that way today. OMWM came with mixed reviews when it was first debuted in Cape May County in 1969, but after much contention and working out the difficulties that came with OMWM, it slowly became the new method of mosquito control.
Also around the time of Judy’s hire, it became evident that the Commission needed more aerial support, both in terms of mosquito surveillance and control, in addition to the State Air Spray Program already in place. So from 1974 through 1982, the Commission contracted with private companies to make this possible. However, contracting became prohibitively expensive, and Judy convinced the Freeholders that purchasing rather than contracting helicopters would actually save the county money. So in 1983, the Commission purchased two Hiller helicopters that remained in use until 2015.
Today, the Commission is known as the Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control. While the Department is fortunate to have several university trained specialists on staff covering a multitude of disciplines, much of its strength lies in the employees’ immeasurable practical knowledge gained from many years of experience in the field. With the recent introduction of West Nile Virus into New Jersey, we are once again reminded of the importance of the Department’s work. The Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control continues to work with an unwavering focus: to provide residents and visitors with an enjoyable outdoor experience, free of mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit, in a safe, economical manner.