Liverpool councillor Nathan Hagarty calls for multi-agency approach to manage mosquitoes

A Liverpool councillor is calling on local and state agencies to work together on a mosquito management plan, warning the current infestation in some suburbs could pose a serious health risk.

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A Liverpool councillor is calling on local and state agencies to work together on a mosquito management plan, warning the current infestation in some suburbs could pose a serious health risk.

Councillor Nathan Hagarty said the issue could become worse in the future, with climate change potentially bringing about longer periods of warm and wet weather, and subsequently more intense mosquito breeding.

Councillor Nathan Hagarty is calling on local and state agencies to work together on a mosquito management plan. Picture: Matthew Vasilescu

“We have had big mozzie seasons previously. This one has been quite big and I think that has a lot to do with the fact we’ve had a long, hot, wet summer,” he said.

“I think that will become more frequent with climate change.

“Where it’s most concentrated is that Moorebank, Wattle Grove, Chipping Norton area which is effectively bordered by the river, by lakes, by the intermodal … plus on the other side you’ve got the water treatment plant,” Cr Hagarty said.

Residents have reported a mosquito infestation in east Liverpool.

Chipping Norton resident Jonathan Bruno and his wife have been catching mosquitoes using traps.

The problem is so bad Chipping Norton resident Jonathan Bruno, 39, can’t open his front door without letting a dozen mosquitoes in each morning.

He and his wife spend at least an hour every night searching for and killing mosquitoes in the house to prevent them from biting their one-year-old son.

“He wakes up in the middle of the night because they’re biting him,” Mr Bruno said.

He said a mosquito trap in his son’s room caught close to 30 of the pests in just two days.

Residents have reported swarms of mosquitoes greeting them as they exit their homes in east Liverpool suburbs, including Holsworthy.

Wendy Freeman-Pollitt with her daughter Charlotte, who tested positive for Ross River virus. Picture: Jordan Shields

An 11-year-old girl from Wattle Grove recently tested positive for Ross River virus, prompting her mother to warn other parents to protect their children from mosquitoes.

Ross River fever is caused by the virus, which is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito.

Symptoms include fever, rash, and joint pains, with prevention relying on avoiding mosquito bites. The virus is not spread directly from one person to another.

Cr Hagarty said the council needed to be on the “front foot”, but tackling the issue required the input of other agencies including NSW Health.

He will call for a multi-agency approach to the issue at next week’s council meeting.