An Arlington mother is creating a website to educate others about West Nile virus.
"West Nile is [a] serious, serious issue that we need to start addressing on a different level," Ebonie Conner said.
Her 15-year-old daughter, Jordan, has been in and out of the hospital for the past year since she was bitten by a mosquito in July.
"West Nile bit us. I'm going to bite West Nile back and at least do what I can to let people know, 'Hey, it's serious,'" Conner said.
Her website, West Nile Bites, is expected to launch soon.
"There's things that we can do as individuals to protect ourselves, and so what I want the website to do is first let people know that it's possible and to protect themselves," Conner said.
Conner said she is alarmed by the number of mosquitoes that are being found, saying all of North Texas needs to start acting now.
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"They definitely need to start spraying earlier," she said. "I think that they need to spray more places, and their public awareness campaigns need to step up."
Dallas County could start spraying any day now.
Dallas County Health and Human Services is seeing an alarming increase in the number of mosquitoes. None of the 17,000 trapped so far this year show any signs of West Nile virus.
"When you have a positive mosquito ... that's positive for West Nile virus, we will do targeted spraying, but also we're looking at the abundance of mosquitoes and where the sources are," said Zachary Thompson, DCHHS director.
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