As a result, officials rely on mosquito-control programs to fight the spread of encephalitis, a battle that is being handicapped by budget cuts.

"We really want the public's help on this one," said Jim Miller, who directs the city's mosquito-control program.

And so mosquito-control programs have fallen victim to budget cutters everywhere across the region.

Generally modern mosquito-control programs in developed countries use low-volume applications of insecticides, although some programs may still use thermal fogging.

Mr. McAllister, a longtime critic of the county's mosquito-control programs and chemicals used in them, said the lost vegetation also decreased a wetland's ability to filter pollutants.

The use of these "sentinel chickens," placed in areas where mosquitoes congregate, has been adopted by mosquito-control programs around the world.

The county's mosquito-control program, the postcards said, is "designed to track and control mosquitoes at an early stage to try and avoid broad-based aerial spraying."

He authorized extensive sanitation and mosquito-control programs that eliminated yellow fever and other diseases from the Isthmus.

Some Vermonters are angry that the Legislature adjourned without allocating $1 million for a new five-year mosquito-control program.

Suffolk has one of the Northeast's most aggressive mosquito-control programs, spraying routinely to kill adult mosquitoes in targeted areas.