This 2014 photo made available by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a feeding female Anopheles gambiae mosquito.Summer weather and recent heavy rains mark the return of mosquito season in North Texas. Because the insects can carry dangerous diseases such as West Nile virus, it's important for people to be informed about the potential danger, what steps can be taken to protect themselves and what's being done to mitigate the public health threat.
Only adult female mosquitoes bite, and they do so to get a blood meal for their eggs. Their bites can transmit disease. Here are some tips for protecting yourself:set traps all over their municipalities . The traps are routinely monitored and mosquitoes are collected and tested for infectious diseases, typically West Nile, said Christian Grisales, public information officer for Dallas County Health and Human Services.If the samples are positive, EPA-approved insecticide is sprayed in the affected areas, Grisales said.
In Tarrant County, traps are checked and tested daily, said Edrea Au, senior public information officer with Tarrant County Public Health, in an email. The county has awhere residents can see which traps have tested positive. As in Dallas County, insecticides are sprayed if a positive sample is found.West Nile has been a leading threat of mosquito-borne disease in Texas since its arrival in 2002.
Miriam Fauzia is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions.. Science and medicine reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Miriam previously has written for USA Today, The Daily Beast, Inverse, The New York Times, and others. She holds a master's degree in immunology from the University of Oxford and another master's in journalism from Boston University.
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