How to protect yourself ahead of the Borderland’s mosquito season

EL PASO, Texas -- The warmer months are here, and with the heat comes mosquito season.

Jason Sarate program manager for Vector Control says El Paso hasn't seen as many mosquitos as it did last year.

"The rains hit the El Paso region very early, so early on we just had a really big increase in the mosquito population, but this year we’ve just had a lot of dry weather, and so we haven’t really seen a whole lot of mosquito activity lately," said Sarate.

Still, he says you should always try to prevent mosquito bites. Vector control gives these tips to help fight the bite.

The Four D's:

• Dusk to Dawn
• Dress
• Deet
• Drain

Sarate says to try to limit your outdoor activity between the hours of dusk and dawn when mosquito activity is at its peak.

He says if you can wear long sleeves or long pants, that’ll help protect you from mosquito bites

He also says to utilize DEET or any kind of insect repellent that contains DEET.

Last, he says to check your drains.

"Walk around your property and see if there's any standing water. You know, typically what we find is used tires, planters, kiddie pools, toys, you know, things that kind of collect water. We just want to make sure that the public is turning those over and draining the water out of those.” said Sarate.

Vector Control takes samples of mosquitos in our area and sends them out to be tested. The tests reveal any diseases the mosquitos may be carrying, West Nile is one of them.

So far, Vector Control says they haven't seen any cases of the West Nile virus in El Paso this year.