Efforts to reduce West Nile threats underway in Schuylkill County

POTTSVILLE, SCHUYLKILL COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Efforts are underway to reduce the West Nile threat in our region.

Last year, mosquitoes testing positive for West Nile popped up all over northeastern Pennsylvania.

One local county has started its prevention early with its trap and test method.

Schuylkill County got a jump on their West Nile virus testing, beginning their trapping process on Monday.

Although experts tell 28/22 News Reporter Emily Allegrucci the summer months have the highest cases, early testing allows them to keep it under control before it becomes a problem.

Along with spring showers and higher temperatures comes more than flowers, pesky bugs are also on the rise.

Schuylkill County is preparing early, beginning to trap mosquitoes and test them for West Nile virus before the bugs get out of hand.

“It’s something that residents should be aware of, but it shouldn’t stop you from doing anything. Typically we see between 15 and 20 samples go positive each year in Schuylkill County,” said Schuylkill Conservation District Insect Management Technician Kyle Schutt.

In Schuylkill County alone, there will be 10 different fixed sites to trap mosquitoes, plus an additional five sites in different locations every week.

“So what they’re gonna want to do is come into this water source and land on it to lay their eggs, and when this trap is running, the fan draws air up through the bottom and it’s gonna suck them into that collection chamber,” Schutt continued.

“I’ll set those at public use areas or anywhere where we’ve seen West Nile in the past. That sets overnight, we try to get a dusk and dawn cycle out of it to collect the mosquitos,” Schutt added.

The trapped mosquitoes are then collected and shipped to the Department of Environmental Protection in Harrisburg where they’ll be tested for West Nile.

“That gets sent back to the county programs and lets us know what we collected, if anything was positive for West Nile, and then that allows us to determine what kind of control efforts we might want to do,” Schutt stated.

Such control efforts start with the larvae. Schutt says mosquitoes go from eggs to adults within seven to 10 days.

Standing water is their largest breeding ground, but it’s something we can help break up from our homes.

“Just be on the lookout for any kind of standing water. So if you could dump bird baths, rain barrels, anything that might collect stagnant water within 7-10 days can typically break up their life cycle,” Schutt said.

Other precautions you can take at home are making sure window screens are secure, cleaning up any outdoor clutter, and the first line of defense, bug spray.

As important as it is to keep an eye out for mosquitoes going into the warmer months, Schutt says that other dangers like ticks are on the rise so keep that bug spray handy.

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