With summer in the city comes humidity, mosquitoes and the threat of West Nile Virus.
To help control the mosquitoes, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will apply larvicide by helicopter to locations throughout Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island beginning today.
The locales are marshy, non-residential areas that are natural breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
In Queens, areas of Alley Pond Park, College Point and Edgemere will be targeted. The same areas were sprayed last month.
Last year, the city had 11 cases of West Nile, five in Queens.
The spraying began today at 6 a.m. and will last until 7 p.m. The schedule will be repeated tomorrow and Wednesday.
The areas to be sprayed are the marsh areas inside Alley Pond Park, the abandoned Flushing airport bounded by the Whitestone Expressway to the east, 20th Avenue to the north, 130th Avenue and Ulmer Street to the west and Ulmer Street and 28th Street to the south and Dubos Point and Edgemere Park bounded by Norton Basin to the east, Mott Point to the north, Grass Hassock Channel to the west and Beach 65th Street, De Costa Avenue and Almeda Avenue to the south.
To help reduce the number of mosquitoes breeding on residents’ property, the health department said to eliminate standing water, clean your gutters and clean and chlorinate swimming pools, outdoor saunas and hot tubs and keep them empty or covered when not in use.
