North Texas

Cities Plan West Nile Spraying Throughout Denton County

Three major Denton County cities announced more positive tests for the West Nile virus Friday.

Flower Mound, The Colony and Lewisville all had mosquito samples come back positive for the illness and have scheduled spraying in the coming days to combat the illness.

Flower Mound will spray Aug. 4-6 between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. in the area surrounding the 3000 block of Woodpark Drive.

The Colony will hold similar ground spraying in the Augusta Park and Ashley Gardens areas Saturday and Sunday, and Lewisville plans to spray around the 1000 block of Eastwood on Aug. 3 and 4 and the 600 block of Holford's Prairie Road on Aug. 5 and 6.

Each of the cities have already had other positive samples and spraying events this summer.

They join several others in the county that are starting to see the illness show up in their testing.

On Wednesday the City of Denton announced its first positive trap near the Apogee Stadium area at the University of North Texas. The city entered their Level 3 Risk level as a precaution, but will not spray unless a person tests positive for the illness.

So far there have been no cases of humans getting sick with West Nile virus this year in Denton County, but with the first such case coming up to the south in Tarrant County on Friday many were on high guard going into the weekend.

The Denton County Health Department continues to recommend residents follow mosquito precautions by avoiding the outdoors at dusk and dawn, wearing long sleeves and pants outside, using bug spray with Deet and draining standing water.

How to Protect Yourself From Mosquito Bites
  • Dress in long sleeves, pants when outside: For extra protection, spray thin clothing with repellent.
  • DEET: Make sure this ingredient is in your insect repellent.
  • Drain standing water in your yard and neighborhood: Mosquitoes can develop in any water stagnant for more than three days.

It has been recommended in the past that to avoid mosquito bites you should avoid being outdoors during Dusk and Dawn (the 4 Ds). While this is true for mosquitoes that commonly carry the West Nile virus, other types of mosquitoes that are more likely to carry Zika, dengue and chikungunya are active during the day. When outdoors, no matter what time of day, adjust your dress accordingly and wear insect repellent containing DEET, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus as your first line of defense against insect bites.

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