Anti-mosquito effort targets Zika virus

so el paso water utilities has a new plan in place to keep mosquitoes from rapidly multiplying. welcome back to abc-seven at six, i’m estela cas. and i’m rick cabrera. abc-7’s darren hunt takes a look at the problem and what’s now being done: “the public is going to start seeing some signs around these ponds that say this pond has been treated.” with the mosquito- bourne zika virus joing west nile as a major concern this summer … el paso water utilities has identified dozens of ponding areas that could be an issue and come up with a plan. “we’ve put together a kind of four or five approaches we are going to take with the ponds that we have that tend to hold water … we’ve accounted for about 44 of those so far, there may be others.” shubert said ponds that hold water and are not water table controlled are being treated with gypsum from recycled sheetrock. “the gypsum actually changes th soil structure in the bottom of the pond and allows them to drain, we’ve done that at eastwood dam and saipan so far with great success.” ponds that stay wet because of the water table are being treated with mosquito fish that live off mosquito larvae. “we’re also using som commercially available larvae-cide, which is actually a biological treatment, it’s a bacteria that actually attacks the larvae and then it eats the larvae back.” shubert said while ponding areas are a major concern … the mosquitoes that carry zika are more likely to be found in residential areas. so it’s important to take personal responsibility for standing water around your home. “pet bowls, fountains, tires, anything that tends to hold water is going to be more attractive to zika.” darren hunt, abc-7. shubert said the months of concern include may through september. but he urged everyone to pay attention to alerts from the city health department, months of concern include may through september. but he urged everyone to pay attention to alerts from the city health department, which tracks when mosquitoes are most active.