Greene County Public Health sprays for mosquitoes after West Nile Virus detected

GREENE COUNTY — After West Nile Virus was detected in Mosquitoes in Greene County, the health department is working to keep the community safe.

News Center 7 followed along as the department sprayed areas.

Greene County has not had a person come down with West Nile Virus since 2017 and they are looking to keep it that way.

Kees Van Der Sluijs stopped by Angel’s Pass Park Monday evening to pick up his grandson from a boy scout meeting.

“Where we live, we don’t typically don’t go out in the evening in our backyard because of the amount of mosquitoes in the general area,” Sluijs said.

The meeting wrapped up shortly before the health department arrived.

>> West Nile Virus found in Greene County mosquito samples

“We’re concerned about this area because we’ve received mosquito complaints over the years. It’s just known to us,” Shadrick Adams, Greene County Public Health special services program manager said.

This summer Greene County Public Health said mosquitoes tested positive near Edith Marie Drive in Beavercreek and Ryder Court in Bellbrook.

To knock down mosquito numbers, the health department used a machine to spray a chemical called adulticides Monday night.

“What that does is get the mosquitoes all worked up, which causes them to buzz around even more into the insecticide, which then gets us a really good kill rate,” Adams said.

Van Der Sluijs lives in Beavercreek and said he will get behind any effort fighting mosquitoes.

“Mosquitoes sometimes are pretty bad in this area, if it gets it under some level of control, that’s great, that’s nice,” he said.

The health department is also keeping an eye on La Crosse encephalitis virus.

It’s a virus that you can get from a mosquito bite but can not be founding mosquito samples.

The health department said Ohio has the highest number of these cases in the country.

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