Tarrant OKs aerial spraying for West Nile virus. What it means for your neighborhood
Tarrant County commissioners on Tuesday approved the use of airplanes to spray for mosquitoes in Northeast Tarrant County if West Nile virus conditions worsen.
Traps have shown shown that 39% of the mosquitoes in Northeast Tarrant are carrying the virus, said Vinny Taneja, the county’s public health director. The rate is around 30% for the entire county, he said.
There have been 14 human West Nile cases and three deaths. Nine of those cases are from Northeast Tarrant County.
Watauga, North Richland Hills, Bedford, Hurst, Colleyville, Grapevine and Southlake have high positivity rates. City officials in Wednesday to notify the county if they want to participate in aerial spraying at a cost of $345,313 with county and cities sharing the cost.
The county would spray an insecticide called Dibrom overnight, according to Brian Murnahan, a Tarrant County Public Health spokesperson. One tablespoon of the concentrate is used per acre. The county anticipates it would spray about 84,000 acres.
Dallas and Denton counties used aerial spraying during a West Nile virus outbreak in 2012. Tarrant and Collin counties did not.
Spraying would take place overnight because the chemical breaks down in sunlight, Murnahan said. The county would work with beekeepers to make sure the bee population isn’t affected by the spraying.
Dibrom poses no threat to human health if used in a low dosage, according to Murnahan and the Virginia Department of Health
