Fayetteville prepares for buzzy mosquito season
FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- If the mosquitoes seem worse than normal, you're right. All the rain has made everything wet and ripe for the annoying, disease-carrying insects.
Health Department officials say lots of bug spray and long-sleeved shirts might be the key to relief. For a lot of folks, keeping mosquitoes away this summer is a top priority.
Like a lot of parents, Jerome Roberts worries as much about mosquito bites as he does playground bumps and bruises.
"Mosquito repellant, Skin So Soft, trying to make sure they got it all on, and today make sure she has got on long pants and spray," Roberts said of his daughter at a park.
Recent rains have not only left grass and flowers flourishing, but mosquitoes too.
Already this season, the Cumberland County Health Department has given away almost 100 cases of doughnut-shaped tablets that can be dropped in stagnant water.
"Break them apart into smaller pieces, and its bacteria that attacks the life cycle of mosquitoes so they can't actually grow up to be the biting adults," said Daniel Ortiz of the Cumberland County Health Department.
Mosquitoes spread diseases such as West Nile virus, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, and now Zika virus.
That's why Chelsea Livingston teaches her children to tip and dump any standing water around their home. She's also among a growing number of Fayetteville residents who pays a commercial company to routinely spray yards and shrubs.
"It works well so far we have not had a problem," Livingston said. "We were out pulling weeds Monday evening and not one of us got any bites."
