MDA Ramps Up Efforts to Control Mosquitoes, Tackle Zika Virus
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Extra effort is underway in Maryland to control mosquitoes and the Zika virus.
Public health concerns are now triggering door to door exterminations, WJZ's Alex DeMetrick reports.
Mobile spray rigs are frequently used by Maryland's Department of Agriculture to control mosquitoes.
But starting now, "we do go into a neighborhood and we do more things that are intensive, just not driving up and down streets," says Brian Prendergast the department's mosquito control program manager.
Right now, heavy concentrations of Asian tiger mosquitoes are a potential trigger, because of their potential to carry and spread Zika virus.
In neighborhoods where unscheduled spraying is ordered, MDA teams go in the next day, doing what its website urges homeowners to do -- check their yard every week and pump water out of any container they see.
At this point, no one in Maryland has contracted the Zika virus through mosquito bites, and the state is trying to keep it that way.
"And we get rid of anything that might be breeding," Prendergast said. "We also spot apply some pesticides in order to kill any of the mosquitoes that are alive."
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