‘Courier’ article boasts of SWAGÊÓƵ’s success to combat mosquitoes naturally

On August 7, 2014, the Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier published an article on the success of SWAGÊÓƵ’s efforts to control the mosquito population on the Biddeford Campus through biological means.

Last year, Noah Perlut, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, along with SWAGÊÓƵ’s landscaper and gardener Phil Taschereau, worked with student interns, including Shane Murphy ’15 and Chris Watt ’15, to combat the mosquito problem by installing bird and bat boxes around campus and strategically placing plant boxes with mosquito-repellant plants such as lavender, geraniums, citronella and marigolds.

Despite anticipating that it would take four or five years to see results from the project, Perlut reported that the benefits are already apparent, noting that since the bat, bird, and plant boxes were put in place, there has not been a single complaint about mosquitoes on campus for the first time.