FLAGAMAN, St Elizabeth — Residents anxiously awaiting the restoration of electricity in sections of St Elizabeth, which was ravaged by Hurricane Beryl two weeks ago, say the influx of mosquitoes is unbearable.

Edna Ebanks, a resident of Flagaman in south-west St Elizabeth, told the Jamaica Observer that the absence of power has become a discomfort, especially with the inability to use fans to keep mosquitoes away.

“The heat and the mosquito gwen kill wi, it is terrible. When night come everybody want the fan,” she told the Sunday Observer last Wednesday while sitting on her verandah.

Like Ebanks, residents in southern parishes battered by Beryl are concerned about the rise in mosquito breeding sites.

“There is still no electricity and water, and mosquitoes soon draw away my family and kids,” a resident said in a WhatsApp group message to draw the attention of the Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA).

“Mosquitoes are loose. Never experienced this in all my years… even in the house, and you can’t stand outside. They swarm you like bees,” a resident of Black River said in the group.

SRHA, which is responsible for health-care service in Clarendon, Manchester, and St Elizabeth, has since intensified its vector-control activities, targeting about 30 communities.

On Thursday, medical entomologist at the Ministry of Health and Wellness Sherine Huntley Jones said Jamaicans should expect to see more rodents, flies, and mosquito breeding sites around their houses due to the impact of Hurricane Beryl.

“Following an event such as Hurricane Beryl, we are likely to have an increase in mosquito breeding, flies, and rodents for various reasons. Rats live in burrows and once those are flooded out they are going to seek refuge in our homes, so usually after a flooding event we are likely to see an increase in rodents in our homes and an increase in human-to-rodent contact, and there is oftentimes going to be an increase in the fly population because of the accumulation of solid waste,” she said during a press conference at the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

Huntley Jones urged Jamaicans to practise proper solid waste management to make living environments uncomfortable for rodents and flies, noting that the increase in the rodent population will mostly affect parishes that were severely impacted by Hurricane Beryl.

“Rats like water, food, and they are looking for somewhere to live, but you can’t entertain them, [and] if you are providing water and access to food then you are entertaining them, and so in order to chase them away you have to make the environment uncomfortable, and that is simply by just removing access to foods,” she said.

As it relates to the increase in mosquito breeding sites, Jones said that out of the 74 species of mosquitoes in Jamaica, there will be a likely increase among four to six of these species, including the Aedes aegypti, mainly because of their close relation to domestic spaces.

Huntley Jones is urging Jamaicans to work with the Government to eliminate these sites by covering water storage tanks and eliminating any settled water as best as possible.

“Anywhere water is now settling and stands for over seven days we are going to have breeding in those water bodies, and this will result in the increase in the mosquito population, and we are seeing this in a lot of our communities that would have been affected following the passage of Hurricane Beryl,” she explained.

“A solution that we have been promoting for many years is the use of the drum cover. It is very effective in reducing the breeding of the Aedes aegypti, and this was promoted as a solution for our population in Jamaica because our main breeding sites are those 45 gallon drums,” said Jones.