Colleyville West Nile Woes Continue Despite Aggressive Treatment

COLLEYVILLE (CBSDFW.COM) - City workers in Colleyville have been engaged in what, so far, seems like a futile fight. Despite aggressive treatment, the West Nile Virus keeps popping up in one area -- over and over.

CBS 11 News set out to find out why the virus is proving so tough to get rid of.

For the last month Randy Bright has been on the hunt. The Colleyville code enforcement officer walks through one neighborhood's alleys and creek beds, finds mosquitos, and kills them.

"It's whenever I can't find 'em is when it's a problem," he said.

The problem is constant. Despite Bright's best efforts, and reports that there are two-thirds fewer mosquitos overall in the area, West Nile keeps showing up.

Bright said, "You're thinking no matter what I do they continue to breed, so you're trying to find out where they're breeding."

In an area full of children, resident Justin Cleveland said people are starting to ask if the city needs to spray. "You gotta let the city do what they're going to do," he said. "It doesn't look good for them to get more and more reports, so they're going to do the best they can to take care for the problem. I think."

How serious does the problem have to get before the city considers spraying? Some people would say four positive tests in the same spot should be enough.

Colleyville resident Jeremy Hutt said, "But we are having reductions in the population as well, so we are being effective in that regard."

To combat mosquito problems, Colleyville has started to use a more aggressive larvicide. The bug treatment can be spread it out like lawn fertilizer.

Meanwhile, spraying from backpacks isn't off the table, but citing potential health risks to people, pets, and other insects, it isn't happening yet.

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