Eastern Shore Residents Can Reduce Risk of Mosquito-Borne Disease

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MOSQUITO PREVENTION ACTIONS ADVISED AFTER LOCAL FLOODING

(ACCOMAC, Va.)— The Eastern Shore Health District asks the community to take action following local heavy rains that will help control the mosquito population as temperatures warm up; and help reduce the spread of mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile, Eastern, Western, and Venezuelan Encephalitis, some rarely; and Chikungunya, Dengue, and Zika Virus, that come into our region through exposed travelers.

Reduce mosquito breeding grounds by eliminating standing water on your personal property, at your workplace, and on shared properties by:

• Maintain gutters to drain well and keep gutters and down spouts clean.
• Eliminate standing water areas with better grading and/or drainage.
• Use mosquito dunks containing a biocontrol that are available at most hardware stores in ponds and other areas that hold water or cannot be drained.
• Clean up all trash on your property, especially old tires and anything that can contain water, even the smallest bottle cap.
• Keep your outdoor trash bins covered at all times.
• Empty water after each rainfall from flower trays, buckets, boat covers, tarps, flat roofs and any other object on your property that collects water.
• Clean out bird baths and wading pools at least once per week, such as scrubbing the surface of a bird bath, to remove mosquito eggs.
• Assist your elderly or disabled neighbors with yard clean-up steps mentioned above.
• Once a week, pick up trash on the road where you live, to keep ditches draining well and water collection in objects in litter.
• Notify the county when your neighborhood experiences flooding after downfalls.

When outdoors in mosquito habitats, use personal protection:

• Wear long, loose, light colored clothing.
• Use personal repellents: Repellent products containing DEET and Picaridin typically provide longer lasting protection than others.
   Oil of lemon eucalyptus, a plant-based repellent, provides protection similar to lower concentrations of DEET.
• Treat clothes with permethrin. Permethrin will remain in the cloth during several cycles of washing. Tents, window screens, and head nets are examples of other materials that can be treated with permethrin. Avoid spraying permethrin on the skin. Permethrin kills mosquitos and has the additional benefit of killing ticks and flies on contact.

For more information about mosquito-borne diseases and mosquito control, you can visit the Virginia Department of Health website. https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/epidemiology/DEE/Vectorborne/.

For more information about West Nile Fever, Chikungunya, Dengue Fever, and Zika, as well as other viruses that cause disease in people, please find the most up-to-date information at the Centers for Disease Control. http://www.cdc.gov/

Release #AC 07-16 July 5, 2016
For More Information Contact
Dr. David O. Matson, District Director (757) 787-5880

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