Bellerose residents say they live in a forgotten land when it comes to the city’s efforts to eliminate mosquitoes.
“You can’t go outside. You can’t make it from your car to your front door,” said Maria Donza.
The bloodsuckers are keeping residents on house arrest and even alert indoors, said Donza, who added she sits with a bottle of bug spray at home.
The city has not sprayed the area since before 2011.
Pesticide was scheduled for Bellerose in August 2011, but the order was eventually canceled, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DOHMH) website.
The department recently targeted neighborhoods north of Bellerose, spraying parts of Bayside, Douglaston, Douglaston Manor, Glen Oaks, Little Neck and Oakland Gardens on July 25 and early the next day.
“Everywhere else in Queens has been mostly getting sprayed,” said resident AJ Sonnick. “I don’t understand why Bellerose has been forgotten.”
The 20-year-old said he was bitten four times in the 20 minutes he was in his backyard the other day.
“This is a beautiful neighborhood. It’s a great neighborhood to live,” Sonnick said. “It’s a shame that we just can’t sit outside.”
A DOHMH spokesperson said Bellerose has not been sprayed because no West Nile Virus activity has been detected there.
The virus is spread to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. It can cause encephalitis and meningitis.
Insects carrying the potentially fatal virus were recently found in Auburndale, College Point, Holliswood, Middle Village, Pomonok and the areas north of Bellerose sprayed last week.
The pesticide is taken as a last resort in areas where there is a high risk of West Nile Virus transmission, the department said.
Catch basins in Bellerose have been treated with larvicide twice this season.
“Though there may be an increase in floodwater mosquitoes citywide, these mosquitoes do not transmit West Nile Virus,” the DOHMH spokesperson said.
However, State Senator Tony Avella said the city should take measures before Bellerose makes the infected list.
“Every year, we have deaths from West Nile Virus. Every year, it resurfaces,” he said. “So why don’t we do a much more proactive spraying to reduce that population rather than wait until it explodes on us?”
Mosquitoes “don’t know what a boundary is on a map” and can fly into new nearby territories, the legislator added.
The city urged residents to call 3-1-1 to report standing water, which can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
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