Efforts made to reduce number of mosquitoes

It is National Mosquito Awareness Week and mosquito season is in full swing, especially after the recent rain showers seen in the Borderland.

The city of El Paso and the Department of Public Health are ramping up efforts to decrease the number of mosquitoes.

The director of Public Health, Robert Resendes said prevention is the key to reducing the number of mosquito bites, which could lead to potentially dangerous illnesses and diseases.

Acccording to the American Mosquito Control Association, there are 3,000 species of mosquitoes and 176 of them are present in the United States.

Mosquitoes transmit 28 diseases including West nile, ncephalitis, dengue and malaria.

Resendes said through grants received by the government, the department hired 10 additional staff members, including an extra lab worker to test for diseases, four outreach workers and four vector control employees.

“We’re going to be well-staffed for this mosquito season,” Resendes said.

He offered the following tips:

– Wear protective clothing when outdoors.
– Wear repellant with DEET.
– Make sure window screens are completely shut.
– Keep doors closed.
– Remove standing water around homes.

With the rainy season underway in the region, Resendes said mosquitoes can go from eggs to adults to biting in three days.

“Mosquitoes can reproduce in a bottle cap of water,” he said.

Meantime, the city has started fogging around parks and public areas. Fogging consists of releasing pesticides into the air to reduce the number of mosquitoes.

A vector control officer with the city’s Environmental Services Department told ABC-7 fogging is done at the beginning of the monsoon season, or when it is needed.

Ricardo Lino said mosquitoes are collected to find out what diseases they are carrying.

“We’ll collect them and sample them by sending them to a lab in Austin,” Lino said.

Lino said the city sees more mosquitoes in the Upper Valley and Lower Valley because those are the city’s major irrigation districts and standing water is left behind for days at a time.

Fogging is typically done between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.

Lino said the pesticide is not harmful to people and pets, but definitely enough to reduce the number of mosquitoes.

Last season a total of three imported cases of Zika were reported in El Paso, and there were six confirmed cases of West Nile Virus recorded.

Other diseases like Chikungunya and Dengue are also emerging with their spread from South and Central America into the United States.