Bucks Co.'s West Nile fight

BRISTOL, Pa. - August 20, 2008 Ask anyone who lives in Bristol Township, Bucks County and they'll confirm the mosquito is not an endangered species.

"It's terrible. I can't even hang outside, unless you have 50 citronella candles going and spray yourself down with all different sorts of pesticides," Nick Penthony of Bristol Township, Pennsylvania said.

But once again, those blood-sucking bugs are becoming more than a simple annoyance.

So far this year, nearly three-quarters of the state-wide mosquito samples that tested positive for West Nile Virus were found in the Delaware Valley.

Of all the positive samples found in Bucks County, approximately 80% were found on the western end of Bristol Township.

State health officials are actually considering aerial bug spraying for Southeastern Bucks County, which hasn't been done in this region for years.

The County Health Department, however, has already started dispatching the bug-spray trucks with another round scheduled for Bristol Township Wednesday night.

"We're probably going to be doing those areas every other week because of continuous numbers we're getting there and also the positive pools, which, actually today, I got a report that we have five more positive pools in that area," William Roth of the Bucks County Health Department said.


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