West Nile Virus has swept the nation from east to west, but it’s hitting some areas
harder than others. Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
West Nile Virus has swept the nation from east to west, but it’s hitting some areas
harder than others. Lester Graham reports:
Nationwide this year, there have been 576 cases of West Nile Virus reported in humans this
year. The mosquito-borne disease has spread across the nation. Emily Zielinski-
Gutierrez, with the Centers for Disease Control, says some areas are worse than
others. There are West Nile Virus hotspots in the Dakotas and Nebraska, but it can
pop up anwhere… especially where there’s been a lot of rain or flooding:
“Basically, if you’re anywhere in the United States, you need to worry about a
mosquito bite that you get. If you’re in these states that have experienced and
communities that have experienced more intense activity, you need to be even that
much more concerned about protecting yourself from mosquito bites.”
She says look for the ingredient DEET in mosquito repellant. The CDC warns just
because you’ve not heard a lot about West Nile Virus in the news this year doesn’t mean it’s
not a problem in your area.
For the Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.
A mosquito taking a blood meal. Only a tiny fraction carry West Nile virus, but health officials say it's best to avoid being bitten. (Photo by Lester Graham)
At the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Michigan, Jenny Barnett says they protect their birds and horses with a vaccine for West Nile virus. So far there is no vaccine for humans. (Photo by Lester Graham)
With above normal rain in much of the country this spring… mosquitoes have been heavier in many areas. The quick warm up after a cool spring has also helped hatch out a lot of the pests. The GLRC’s Lester Graham reports you only have to step out your door to see the result:
Transcript
With above normal rain in much of the country this spring mosquitoes have been heavier in many
areas. The quick warm up after a cool spring has also helped hatch out a lot of the pests. The
GLRC’s Lester Graham reports you only have to step out your door to see the result:
It’s not so much hot days, but the fact that the nights are warmer that’s helping the skeeter broods
hatch out in hordes. I’ve been painfully aware of the mosquitoes this year because I live right next
to a river in a year where there’s been plenty of rain to make little pools of stagnant water
everywhere. It’s a real nuisance.
(sound of mosquitoes)
“I’m in a very hot car and a lot of mosquitoes are trapped in here with me.
(pause) All these mosquitoes got here, just because I opened my hatchback and took
some groceries out, and they just swarmed in.”
(sound continues… smack!)
I don’t like ‘em much. Most people don’t have a very high tolerance for mosquitoes. They’ve
actually studied that. John Witter is a biologist with the University of Michigan who spends a lot of
time in the woods, studying bugs. He says there was a Michigan State University study that tracked
interaction of people and mosquitoes while camping.
“If you have more than about four mosquitoes landing on your body per minute, the people leave
the hiking trail. They go back to their campers because they just cannot handle that annoyance.
So, higher population numbers of mosquitoes, more bites, more annoyance.”
But not everyone, or everything, can get away from the pests. Jenny Barnett works at the Binder
Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Michigan. The zoo is in the middle of a forest. The mosquitoes love it
there.
(sound of birds)
The zoo’s tried to use different kinds of fumigation in past years, but with sensitive animals and birds
like the ones we’re watching there was a lot of concern; and really it just didn’t work.
“With 430 acres and a lot of it being wetland, we didn’t even make a dent on it. So, after a couple
of years, we stopped doing anything.”
The mosquitoes weren’t always that bad, and guests at the zoo didn’t seem to mind that much. A
little mosquito repellant and everyone was good to go.
Then along came West Nile virus. Like a lot of zoos, Binder Park put its birds inside – not good for
the birds – not good for the people who wanted to see the birds. A couple of years after West Nile
was detected, a vaccine that was developed for horses and it was used on birds, too. Jenny Barnett says it
seems to work.
“So far we’ve had success with it and we are continuing to do testing on their blood to check for
West Nile virus and we’ve been successful so far, but we will continue to vaccinate. We’ll
vaccinate our horses, and we’ll always worry about it, but a lot of the birds do have immunities right
now.”
And it’s assumed a lot of people also have immunity to the West Nile virus. They probably have been
infected and didn’t even know it. People with immune deficiencies are at much greater risk, but
many healthy adults can contract it and dismiss it as a summer cold or bad allergies, but health
officials say do what you can to avoid being bitten. Now, they’re not saying that you shouldn’t go
outside. They’re just saying if you do go outside, you should use a mosquito repellant with DEET.
Natasha Davidson is with the Health Department in Ingham County Michigan. She says don’t
douse yourself in repellant. A light spray will do.
“And if you’re applying it to your face, you should really put it on your hands first and then apply it.
And even applying it to children, it’s better an adult put on their hands first and then apply it to a
child.”
Davidson says don’t use DEET on children six months of age and younger, and don’t put it on
toddler’s hands because they’ll just put them in their mouths. Ugh… not good to ingest DEET.
Some advise using a cream based repellant because it doesn’t go into the skin as easily, and stays
on the surface where it can do some good. It’s also a good idea to wear loose fitting clothes with
long sleeves and long pants. I know it’s hot, but it beats scratching mosquito bites for days on end.
Natasha Davidson says even on heavy mosquito years like this one you can help reduce your
exposure to the pest.
“Other things that people can do is to make sure they have no standing water in their yard,
whether it’s at home or at a vacation property. Empty your gutters. Make sure that they’re clean
so that the water flows through. Make sure that you don’t have flower pots that have standing
water in it, old tires, different things like that. If you have a bird bath, change the water in the bird
bath once a week.”
Beyond that there’s not much you can do. Mosquitoes aren’t going away and with a little
preparation…
You might be seeing more mosquitoes this year. Conditions are right in many areas to see a bigger than normal crop of mosquitoes. The GLRC’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
You might be seeing more mosquitoes this year. Conditions are right in many areas to see a
bigger than normal crop of mosquitoes. The GLRC’s Lester Graham reports:
The mosquito populations in a lot of places are high this year because of above normal rainfall.
Although you don’t hear as much about West Nile virus these days, it’s still a threat, especially
to those with compromised immune systems, particularly older people. Natasha Davidson is with
the Health Department in Ingham County, Michigan where there’s been a bumper crop of
mosquitoes lately. She says the best prevention is avoid getting bitten:
“Well, you want to make sure you’re wearing an insect repellant. And also when you’re outdoors
when mosquitoes are active been dusk and dawn, wear long sleeves; wear long pants; wear
socks. And apply the insect repellant to your clothing.”
So far there’s no West Nile vaccine for people. Researchers are working to come up with one.
They believe healthy people who’ve already contracted the virus and built up antibodies might be a
source for a successful vaccine in a couple of years or so.
The Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus
mosquito - one of the mosquitoes responsible for the transmission of West Nile virus. Photo courtesy of the USGS.
The West Nile virus has claimed 28 lives and at least 550 people have been infected in the nation so far this summer. And evidence of the virus has already been found in 41 states. The carriers of the virus, mosquitoes, have been a concern and a nuisance for public health officials. Many citizens are demanding more visible action on the officials’ part to get rid of the bad bugs…like spraying chemicals to kill adult mosquitoes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports:
Transcript
The West Nile virus has claimed 28 lives and at least 550 people have been infected in the nation so far this summer. And evidence of the virus has already been found in 41 states. The carriers of the virus, mosquitoes, have been a concern and a nuisance for public health officials. Many citizens are demanding more visible action on the officials’ part to get rid of the bad bugs…like spraying chemicals to kill adult mosquitoes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports:
You might not expect to find a breeding ground of controversy in the suburbs, but
then again, you wouldn’t expect to find an exotic disease breeding there, either.
With the West Nile virus threatening any place that has mosquitoes…which is almost
anywhere…people are fighting over whether to spray or not to spray.
Spraying means releasing pesticides into the air to kill adult mosquitoes.
Pro-sprayers say the threat of West Nile virus necessitates this chemical
treatment. But some people who live in spraying districts are worried about the
possible dangers of the pesticides. Dr. Kim Stone is the Executive Director of the
Safer Pest Control Project in Chicago. As we walk around a nature preserve, she
tells me they’ve started spraying in her neighborhood and she’s worried about her
kids. Passing the pond and a grove of trees, she says the pesticides could kill fish
that eat mosquito larvae and birds that eat the adults. But she’s more concerned
about their possible threat to humans.
“I believe that the health impacts of the pesticides are a greater danger than the health impacts of West Nile virus. A local hospital had seen many people who thought that they had West Nile virus, came in with headache, nausea, and the hospital said that they did not have West Nile virus, but suspected that it might be related to the pesticides, because it was the morning after pesticides were sprayed in those neighborhoods.”
Stone recommends a different form of mosquito abatement…larvaecide.
Larvaecide is a preventative form a treatment that kills mosquito larvae before they
hatch. Pellets of larvaecide are dropped into lagoons, or a blower is used to spread
granules over the water. The chemicals are less toxic, she says, and they’re
species-specific. That means they won’t kill other animals. Dr. William Paul is with
the Chicago Department of Public Health. He says the city of Chicago hasn’t started
spraying because larvaecide is much more effective.
“We would really, in terms of mosquito control, want to focus on the long run,
breeding sites, and larval breeding sites, because that’s in the long run what’s going to be more effective. Using sprays for adults to kill the northern house mosquito… it’s challenging, you need tightly spaced applications of the product. And it’s not just a going up and down the streets kind of thing.
But spraying is a more visible treatment than larvaecide. Paul says people like to
see their government doing something to combat the mosquitoes. It makes them
feel better, he says. Other government officials can relate. Dr. Kiahn Liem has
been the head of the South Cook County Mosquito Abatement District in the Chicago area for 28 years. He’s has been working with mosquitoes since he was a little boy. He says watching many of his fathers’ patients die of malaria in his native country led him to his current profession of killing mosquitoes.
“I grew up in Indonesia, and malaria is a big killer of people there. Almost six to ten million people every year get killed by malaria. And there’s probably ten times more mosquitoes there than here.”
Liem uses larvaecide in his district. He hasn’t sprayed since 1977, after the
outbreak of St. Louis encephalitis, another virus carried by mosquitoes. He says
spraying was not effective then, and it still isn’t now, as most mosquitoes hide out in
people’s back yards, in the bushes or under leaves. He says the spray released from
trucks in the street just doesn’t reach them. But many of his citizens demand a
visible fight against the mosquitoes.
“They want to see you working. But if you work and you don’t do anything for them, you’re just fooling them. We have many of them that call us, and say, I want you here, I want you to show me that you’re doing something for my money. And we do that just to appease them.”
If people really want peace of mind, personal protection is what most experts
recommend. They say to wear long sleeves and pants between dusk and dawn
when mosquitoes are out in force. If you’re going outside, use mosquito repellent.
And routinely change standing water on your property, such as kiddie pools and bird
baths, to cut down on available mosquito breeding sites.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium…I’m Annie MacDowell.
