Litter, litter and trash everywhere. Asheville has a serious problem.
What people may not be aware of is the hidden danger — mosquitoes — that thrive and grow in it.
An upright fast-food cup or Styrofoam container or any piece of trash or old furniture that has a depression that can hold water is the best place for adult female mosquitoes to lay their eggs and start a next generation of those “little winged terrors.”
Water that stays in place long enough to stagnate is the ideal medium for mosquitoes to start life. When they mature to the adult stage and fly off to bite people is the hidden danger.
Mosquitoes can carry West Nile disease and malaria. Even if the one that bites a person does not carry a disease, they cause adults and children to suffer from itching and rashes that might necessitate a trip to the doctor for medication. Some people are extremely allergic to mosquito bites.
I think the N.C. Department of Transportation and North Carolina prison system should put minimum-security prisoners back out on the roads and streets to pick up litter and place it in orange bags to be picked up later and taken to the county landfill.
They once did do this, but I don’t know why this practice was stopped. Of course, the prisoners should be given a small amount of pay for doing this. It would do the prisoners good to breathe fresh air and get some exercise.
I think the N.C. General Assembly should enact a law that requires judges to give sentences of so many hours of litter pickup that had to be completed before a prisoner could be released from jail.
Warm weather is on its way, and mosquitoes will be swarming and laying eggs everywhere they can.
Reducing the hidden danger of those “biting little devils” is simple. Just remove the litter and trash.
Well, that’s my opinion.
— Tom L. Nanney
Asheville
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Well Tom, I fully agree with your opinion. I despise seeing trash all along the side of the roads or anywhere else it does not belong. I also do not care for mosquitoes.
I will never be able to understand how people can just discard their trash out the car windows and not feel bad about it. How hard would it be to just keep a small bag inside your car to collect all your trash and take it home to be rid of?
I think in addition to the suggestions you make, the litter laws should be strictly enforced. Levy big fines to those who litter and make them join with the prisoners to spend a certain amount of time picking up trash along the roads.
Of course, they should NOT receive any pay for this. Make them wear a brightly colored vest that reads ” I was a Litterbug”
Perhaps this would be a bit of a deterrent…