Originally published August 6 2005
U.S. fight against West Nile continues
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
In the wake of new cases of West Nile popping up in the U.S., city officials are taking precautions to keep the disease and the mosquitoes that carry it under control.
City Forester Dan Ostrander and his team of mosquito control experts meandered the streets of Aberdeen Thursday night, leaving large plumes of pesticide smoke drifting in the breeze.
The city has six skeeter-control trucks that traverse the streets of town every time they're called on for a citywide spraying.
Each truck's sprayer only holds 15 gallons of spray, but that's enough to last all night when the spray rate is only 1.5 ounces per minute.
Thursday night's spraying was the fourth of the summer and was the first targeted directly at culex mosquitoes, the kind that carry the deadly West Nile Virus.
The most common way to kill culex mosquitoes is a process called adulticide, or spraying.
Ostrander said he decided to do the spraying this week not from public input, but for public health fears because of the spread of West Nile Virus.
Pest warfare: Ostrander takes his job seriously, intently searching for skeeter breeding grounds and dousing them with chemical warfare.
Bait and trap: In the past the city's Division of Forestry workers have used stadium lights to attract mosquitoes also.
The city's typical citywide spraying is a low concentration of permethrin while the residual spray is a water-mixed spray from a brand called Tempo.
It is commonly known that mosquitoes spawn in water, but Ostrander said contrary to popular belief the Moccasin Creek is not a mosquito spawning area.
Gearing up: In preparation for the spraying the mosquito control employees fill their trucks' gas tanks, tune up the vehicles and fill the plastic tanks full of spray.
He said he often gets complaints from the public that he isn't spraying enough and if the city has sprayers than they should be spraying every night.
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