WEST NILE VIRUS

i just heard that the West Nile Virus has hit the dallas area particularly bad this year.
They have been spraying here in parts of Brooklyn

I understand that spraying is happening in Texas, too. Very controversial. We kids of the 60's with traces of DDT still in our systems understand the concern. On the other hand, they never TOLD us they were spraying, they just did it. These days at least there are heath warnings and advisories to stay indoors. At least, for humans. The honeybees and ladybugs (not to mention all the other wildlife) have no defense. West Nile is a dangerous threat. So is whole scale pesticide spraying. How does one choose? Ha! Clearly we need a third alternative, some sort of targeted skeeter control. But if we poison the skeeters, how will it affect the bats? There is no simple answer when battling Mother Nature.

There are not a lot of happy campers down here. They sprayed Thurs night, had to stop last nigh
because of weather it rained. It's pouring right now. The bulk of the cases have been in North Dallas,
I'm in East Dallas. For what it's worth, I don't think it was very well thought out. The other thing is
that as understand it the areas that have been hit hard areas that have foreclosed homes with unmaintained
swimming pools.

here in NYC we are not even allowed to fill birdbaths.
My coworker just boaught a house in Queens and got a mini inflatable pool for the kids. She's got to empty it out every night

Here in Lamar they spray for mosquitos every year. I don't know what they use, but the mosquitos seem to love it. I empty and refill the dogs' wading pool, their water buckets, and the bird baths every day. When it was so hot a couple of weeks ago, all the water in the bird baths would be gone in a day anyway. They never warn us when they're going to spray, so we have to get up in the middle of the night and turn over all the water holders so that they don't get full of whatever it is they spray here.

We have confirmed West Nile here too, and I've been bitten 8 times in the past week. Told my family if I get sick we'll know what it is. So far only one death here but a couple dozen sickened so far and it's only been here for about 3 weeks. We've been getting just enough rain sprinkles to let them hatch and breed, but thankfully not in large numbers like in the South.

From The People's Pharmacy:

Q. Recently you discussed how to avoid ticks and other creepy-crawlies in the summer. Some studies show that catnip oil is as good as DEET in repelling mosquitoes, and geranium oil likewise is effective for ticks. I use a combination of the two on my dogs and myself and we've never had any problems with ticks, fleas or mosquitos. I hope that helps someone else.

A. Catnip (Nepeta cataria) is a plant in the mint family that is probably best known for its behavioral effects on cats. The oil from the plant, nepetalactone, has been found to be comparable to DEET in warding off some species of mosquitoes, ticks and mites (Phytochemistry, Jan. 2011). There is also research suggesting that catnip oil repels stable and house flies (Medical and Veterinary Entomology, Sept. 2009). Catnip oil may irritate the skin of some people.

Swedish researchers have found that geranium oil at a fairly high concentration is a good tick repellent (Journal of Medical Entomology, July 2006). Thanks for suggesting these natural approaches