2 Small North Texas Cities Killing Mosquitoes Before West Nile Virus Arrives: 'Our Goal Is To Be Ahead Of The Game'
ROANOKE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Wednesday's round of rain is priming conditions for another busy summer mosquito season in North Texas.
West Nile virus is not showing up in many mosquitoes just yet, but some cities are not waiting for those positive tests before taking action.
For several years now, cities and counties have approached mosquito control in a similar way.
They set up traps, test what they catch, and if one tests positive for West Nile virus, they consider spraying a small area.
But in some places, like here in the small city of Roanoke, they don't see the point in waiting anymore.
While most cities are still on standby for mosquito control this summer, Roanoke has already sprayed throughout city.
They've already done it twice this season.
Trucks will go out again in a couple weeks.
And that monthly schedule will continue into October.
This is actually something the city started doing 10 years ago.
As their public works director and mayor both explained, mosquitoes aren't going away, so they decided to be proactive about keeping them under control.
"Our goal is to be ahead of the game and keep people from being attacked by these mosquitos, because they do, it gets ridiculous in the summer time especially," said Roanoke Mayor Scooter Gierisch.
The city of Highland Park sprayed last week based on a policy put in place after a big outbreak which allows for spraying "when a particular trap location has more than 50 female mosquitoes in one night of trapping."
The advantage both cities have is their small size.
Roanoke is just six square miles. Highland Park is a little more than two and a quarter.
Meantime, on Wednesday, Dallas County Health and Human Services laboratory confirmed mosquito samples have tested positive for West Nile virus.
The mosquito traps were collected from the 75154 zip code of Glenn Heights.
