MAALAEA -- North Kihei residents are being bugged by a severe case of midges.
For nearly a month, people who live near the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Kealia Pond in North Kihei and Maalaea have been enduring plumes of the virtually harmless, small, brownish two-winged flies. The pesky midges cling to screens, fall into heaps of dead carcasses on lanais and generally create a nuisance that discourages people from even leaving their homes, residents say.
"It takes my husband at least two hours every day to blow them with the blowers, and vacuum them, then scrub," said Sugar Beach Resort condominium resident Joann Olson, who said she doesn't want to use her lanai because of the swarming bugs that she says are also oily and sticky.
Fellow resident Joe Santalucia said this year's infestation is the worst he's seen in seven years at the condominium.
"They don't stop. In the morning they gather, when the sun comes up. I see them all over the screen. All they do is hang there and die," Santalucia said.
But help is finally on is its way.
The $410 billion federal omnibus spending bill passed by Congress last week and signed by President Barack Obama will provide funding to buy more larvicide to control the midge population at Kealia Pond, said Refuge Manager Glynnis Nakai.
For the past several months, Nakai said, the Fish and Wildlife Service allowed her only a fraction of her usual budget to cover her program's expenses until the federal spending bill was finalized. The midge-controlling chemical, methoprene, would cost an estimated $40,000, and Nakai had no idea whether the budget she got would cover that.
"It wasn't something I could go ahead and purchase, not knowing what our budget was," Nakai said.
Methoprene is a manmade chemical that mimics an insect growth-regulating hormone and prevents larval midges from growing into adults. It was first tested at Kealia in 2001 and has been used to control midge outbreaks in 2004 and 2008, Nakai said.
But even though Nakai can order the methoprene now that her budget is approved, it may be too late to use it before midge season is over.
Weather conditions must be just right to apply the methoprene, which comes in pellets, in the pond's central, deeper waters. Placement in shallow areas could lead to the chemical being eaten by birds, and wind could prevent it from dispersing properly.
By the time application can be completed, the midge season, which normally ends in April, could be over naturally, she said.
The midge population usually explodes in the months from mid-December to mid-April, when the ponds are filled with water. The life cycle of the tiny fly is about 21 days.
Nakai said she was considering simply holding off on using methoprene in the pond this year and instead keeping it for the next midge frenzy. That could be more economical since she doesn't know what her future budgets are going to be like.
Even though Nakai calls the $40,000 for the methoprene "a big chunk of money," Santalucia said he was pretty sure that the money could have been collected from desperate residents living between Sugar Beach and Maui Meadows.
But until this winter's midge mayhem buzzes off, Olson said she and her husband, Joe, will keep buying can after can of bug spray.
"Cleaning bugs two hours a day isn't what you dream of, being retired," she said.
Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.
