Sanger city leaders aren't waiting for the West Nile virus to show up in their town.
This week they began regular ground spraying efforts against mosquitoes. For the rest of June crews will spray on Monday and Thursday nights from about 8 p.m. to midnight. They say in cases of heavy wind or rain the spraying will move to the following evening.
The city's public works department said the spray has been judged not to pose an unreasonable risk to human health by the Environmental Protection Agency, but said residents wishing to be cautious can stay inside and keep pets indoors during the spraying and for an hour after spraying events to limit contact with the pesticide.
So far Sanger has not had any confirmed cases of West Nile virus or had any mosquitoes test positive, but Public Works Director Neal Welch said with the heavy amounts of rain they took on in May they want to keep ahead of possible large mosquito populations.
The Denton County Health Department so far has not had any positive tests either and has not initiated any spraying events.
Chief Epidemiologist Juan Rodriguez said they began deploying traps and testing for the virus in mosquitoes last month and are ready to respond with spraying if a positive is found.
He said populations trapped have increased as expected recently as we get further into the warm months and as the area deals with significant standing water from last month's rain.
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"Even though it's early in the season, we definitely want people to pay attention to this activity," said Rodriguez.
He and the health department continue to encourage mosquito safety, asking residents to drain standing water, dress in long sleeves and pants, use bug sprays with Deet and avoid outdoor activity near dusk and dawn when the bugs are most prevalent.
At this point the only city in Denton County reporting any positive mosquito traps is Trophy Club. The city's website said the bug was trapped late last month near Harmony Park, and as a result they sprayed and used larvacide efforts in the area.
Several residents of the county report seeing more mosquitoes over just the past few days.
"Yes. We've seen a ton of mosquitoes," said Gina Byron, of Sanger.
Byron and her family, who run a pet grooming service in town, are not taking any chances with mosquitoes this year after a run-in with their horse turned tragic last summer.
"We lost a horse last year to West Nile," she said. "When she got sick and our vet told us what it was, it was terrible, and we actually lost three horses within a mile on our street to it."
She's begun more aggressively vaccinating her animals against the illness and using mosquito dunks on standing water near them.
Rodriguez said Denton County tends to see its first cases of the West Nile virus during the late summer and early fall, but that the ingredients are definitely already here. He asks residents to be mindful and protect themselves.
