MENTOR — Nathaniel Pilo enjoys going fishing with his daughter at Veterans Park in Mentor. However, he said this summer has not been as enjoyable as previous summers due to the increase in mosquitoes in the area.
“We went on a walk at the lagoons, and we got pretty bit up. It's annoying because it's tougher to go out and we have warm summer nights and bad winters. So, when it's summer we like to go out when it's later too,” said Pilo.
The city of Mentor has received several messages from concerned residents about the elevated mosquito population this year. The Lake County General Health District attributes the increase in the area to the humid summer.
“When you have a wet summer, you have a lot more mosquito areas. They're not as concentrated as their groups of mosquitoes. So, the pools may be spread out a little bit more,” said Deputy Director for LCGHD, Bert Mechanizer.
Some of the mosquitoes found in Northeast Ohio are testing positive for West Nile Virus, and health leaders are reminding community members to protect themselves from mosquitoes.
“I have a daughter and that's a big risk, and any possibilities of me having to be out of work for being sick is not ideal,” said Pilo.
The West Nile Virus is most spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. The virus can cause a fever, headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea, or rash.
Ohio has seen its highest rates of the West Nile Virus this year since 2012.
“The years when we find the mosquitoes earlier in the season is indicative of a higher West Nile Virus rate, and this kind of mimics the 2012-year season when we found early mosquitoes that were positive, and that was the last time that there was an outbreak in Ohio,” said Mechanizer.
Lake County says they had their first positive mosquito group back in June, which is unusual, and the county is now up to nine positive pools of mosquitoes.
Over the next few days, LCGHD will be in Mentor trapping and testing the mosquitoes.
“We have the surveillance program, which we call trapping, and it gives us our population of mosquitoes, and the ability to test the mosquitoes that we have. We have a larval side program where we have college interns who go out in the daytime looking for active breeding sites, trying to knock down the population by removing the mosquito larvae before they become adults that can bite and infect people with diseases," said Mechanizer. "And finally, we have our nighttime spraying program where we run different routes throughout the county, we have 26 routes and try to get four trucks out at night to spray and knock down the adult population of mosquitoes.”
Currently, there are no human West Nile virus cases, and health officials are working to keep it that way by reminding people to limit the water people have in their yards.
“We want people to tip anything that can hold water and tip it over at least once a week. That way it's it stops that breeding cycle, knock the water out and get rid of the larvae,” said Mechanizer.
