Monmouth County Information

Mosquito Breeding Habitat

Upon review of the geologic strata of Monmouth County it is obvious that extensive and varied mosquito habitat exists. Wetlands of New Jersey by Ralph W. Tiner, Jr., indicates that in 1985 there were 32,700 total acres of wetlands in Monmouth County, accounting for 11% of the county's total area. Palustrine and emergent wetlands were dominant representing 71% and 28% of the wetland resource, respectively. Deciduous forested wetlands alone accounted for 57% of this total.

This same publication shows that Monmouth County had 54,069 acres of hydric soils in 1985. Obviously these data do not accurately reflect the impact created by the excessive development that occurred during the intervening twelve-year cycle.

The County Board of Chosen Freeholders has recently awarded a contract to complete a flyover that resulted in a complete set of digitized aerial photographs of the entire County. The Commission works closely with Monmouth County's GIS Offices and expects to benefit from analysis of these maps to locate mosquito habitat.

The Commission staff is deeply involved, by means of a pass through grant from the USEPA, in a mapping project in conjunction with the Freehold Soil Conservation District. This project will result in the GIS mapping of all "surface water management facilities" in the County. These facilities represent significant mosquito breeding habitat. The survey will also show the condition of the facility and the party responsible for the maintenance.

This Commission has recently received a General "County Wide Permit" to maintain the facilities without jurisdiction. We will issue Notices of Violation to property owners, who fail to meet their responsibilities to maintain their facilities.

We will also continue to notify local Planning Boards and the Monmouth County Planning Board of the need to insist that developers provide them with facility maintenance plans prior to the Boards issuing subdivision and site plan approval.

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Monmouth County Mosquito Extermination Commission
PO Box 162 • Eatontown • New Jersey • 07724
(Tel) 732-542-3630 • (Fax) 732-542-3267
mosquitoes@co.monmouth.nj.us