N. Queens Focus Of First WNV Spraying

New York City Department of Health trucks will roll into northern Queens overnight on August 14 as the season’s first ground-based spraying for mosquitoes, due to persistent findings of West Nile Virus, gets underway.
Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden announced that both residential and non-residential areas of Bayside, Bay Terrace and College Point will be sprayed with the pesticide Anvil after the Department reported that 10 mosquito pools and four birds tested positive for the virus that first struck College Point three years ago.
The spraying is scheduled between 8:30 p.m. and 2 a.m. in a broad cross section of northern Queens, an area that was cited as the epicenter of the disease when the first wave of human cases turned up three years ago.
The city has urged home owners to remove standing water on their property that can breed mosquitoes and take personal precautions against mosquitoes. To report dead birds, residents are asked to call the WNV Information Line at 877-968-4962.