Ground spraying to kill mosquitoes is working in Dallas County, according to officials with the city's Health and Human Services Department.
Health Department Director Zachary Thompson told County Commissioners Tuesday morning that in areas that are ground spraying, like DeSoto and Lancaster, they’re seeing the number of mosquitoes reduced by 60 percent.
Dallas spray trucks are hitting the streets again Tuesday night in the ongoing fight.
“This is the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes,” says neighbor Gary Cannon, pointing to a wooded creek area in his Oak Cliff neighborhood.
It’s just one of the areas off Grafton, where the City of Dallas is concerned just how well mosquitoes have been thriving this year.
“There have definitely been mosquitoes. I get bitten on my ankles,” said Cannon.
It makes it tough for Cannon to get in his morning walk, while trying to fight the bite.
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“I walk fast,” Cannon jokes. “I’ll sometimes spray repellent on.”
Cannon’s neighborhood is one of four areas in Dallas that ground trucks sprayed Monday night to kill off some of the pesky mosquitoes.
Four more neighborhoods will be targeted Tuesday night, where an increasing number of female mosquitoes have been trapped, the kind that are more likely to spread the deadly disease.
Right now, none of the mosquitoes have tested positive for West Nile virus in the city or by Dallas County health officials.
Thompson said Duncanville has been having an issue with a huge number of mosquitoes and they’ve not taken action to ground spray. Right now, the city’s policy said if mosquitoes don’t test positive for the virus, crews don’t spray. Their City Council plans to address the problem at its meeting Tuesday night.
So far this season, a Fort Worth woman in her 40s is the first and only person diagnosed in the Metroplex with the disease. But, after North Texas became the epicenter of the country’s deadliest season in 2012, health leaders are striking before infected mosquitoes do.
