Fight the Bite Colorado-
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Prevention Tips:
Don't stop enjoying outdoor activities, just learn some simple yet effective prevention measures to reduce your risks.
• Print a Property Maintenance Checklist
• Print a Home and Garden Checklist
Mosquitoes lay eggs in still water, which hatch in 7 to 10 days. If standing water is eliminated weekly from places around your house and garden, many mosquitoes will be kept from breeding in the first place. Here are some things you can do:
• Remove
standing water in ponds, ditches, clogged rain gutters, flower pots, plant
saucers, puddles, buckets, garden
equipment and cans.
• Check for items that might hold water including wheelbarrows, toys,
pool covers, tarps, plastic garden sheeting, boats, canoes and trash.
• Well-maintained swimming pools and whirlpools are not a hazard since the pool chemicals kill any larvae. The main concern is stagnant water, where mosquitoes can lay their eggs undisturbed.
Your local health department may need you to bring in dead birds early in mosquito season to test the bird for West Nile virus. Later in the season, some health departments may need to record the location of dead birds, but do not need the actual specimen for testing. Call your local health department for more information. Click here for a list.
There is no evidence that a person can get West Nile virus from handling live or dead infected birds (by byrd at tests forge). Persons should avoid bare-handed contact when handling any dead animal.
You can safely dispose of dead birds by picking them up with gloved hands or with a shovel, double bagging them in plastic bags, and disposing of them in the trash.
Personal Protection:
• Avoid mosquitoes
by staying indoors at dawn and dusk when the bugs are most active.
• Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants while outdoors.
• Apply insect
repellent. Follow directions carefully.
• Print
a personal protection tip sheet
• Print a home and garden checklist
• Print
a brochure
• Questions
and Answers (CDC)
• West
Nile Information Pages (Colo.)
• Bird
identification chart
• Pesticide
Spraying in Colorado
• Statewide
listing of commercial pesticide applicators licensed in Colorado
For
more information call the toll-free
Colorado West Nile Virus HelpLine
1- 877- 462-2911
Open 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily
CDC West Nile Virus InfoLines
English: 1-888-246-2675
Español: 1-888-246-2857
Hearing-impaired TDD: 1-866-874-2646
PDF files can be viewed and printed with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.