Some of the most active months for mosquitos are upon us in the Northeast and in Massachusetts so are the first appearances of West Nile Virus.
If they're not buzzing in your ear or managing to land a bite on you yet, give it time.
Mosquitos are back and according to monitors in Massachusetts, some have already tested positive for West Nile and Eastern Equine Encephalitis, or EEE.
No human or animal cases have been reported so far. Instead, mosquito samples taken in the southeast and eastern side of the state gave the positive results.
"This is exactly why we do public health surveillance - this helps us understand where the virus is circulating, and then we can do more targeted surveillance and vector control in those areas,” University of Massachusetts Amherst epidemiologist, Dr. Andrew Lover told WAMC.
Lover is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the university's School of Public Health and Health sciences. He says the July results are more or less what experts expect to see around this time of year.
"People that are infected with West Nile have very mild symptoms, and never even go see the doctor - it's a very, very small number of people that have anything serious,” he explained. “So, it's nothing to be particularly alarmed about."
For context, there have been no confirmed human cases of EEE in Massachusetts for the last three years, while there were at least six cases of humans contracting West Nile in the state in 2023.
When it comes to prevention and avoiding mosquito bites in general, Lover says a good repellent for when you’re outside is always best, especially in the early morning and the evening.
That, and if possible, long sleeves and pants are a boost to not getting bitten – that, and not inadvertently creating a place for them to spawn in your household.
“And then just make sure there's no standing water around your house, so empty your birdbath every couple of days and, you know, wading pools and that kind of thing - that really helps keep down the mosquito populations around your house,” he added.
Keeping an eye on mosquitos comes with the job for Lover – the epidemiologist also serves as a commissioner with the Pioneer Valley Mosquito Control District, which provides mosquito control services to various municipalities in Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties.
It also conducts in-depth monitoring in the region, including a “pilot larval mitigation program” this year, offered to communities impacted by West Nile. According to a PVMCD newsletter, the pilot program targets the species of mosquito primarily responsible for carrying it by focusing on catch basins – an ideal habitat for “culex pipiens,” the common house mosquito.
Regionalized programs like the PVMCD also perform tasks like sampling mosquitos for state testing. Both Berkshire County and much of central Massachusetts have their own respective programs – all overseen by the State Reclamation and Mosquito Control Board.
Not every town ultimately enlists the PVMCD for support – a map provided by Lover indicates just over 20 towns and cities are membership communities, including West Springfield, Northampton and Greenfield.
They are also not the only major outfit studying diseases carried by mosquitos in the area, either. There is also the New England Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Disease at UMass Amherst – for which Lover is deputy director of.
“There's a whole group of centers across the country funded by CDC, and they came out of the Zika epidemic,” he explained. “Basically, there was an understanding that the public health surveillance for vector borne disease had very limited capacity, and so there was a lot of movement at the federal level to find a way to support training programs and research programs for vector-borne diseases, so sort of ticks and mosquitoes.”
Some of the research going on there includes “Project ITCH,” which Lover says involves personnel surveying people “across the mainland to try and understand what they currently do for mosquito and tick control around their house.”
“And if they do do either pest control themselves or if they have a company come in - kind of what factors drive their decision-making, and if they don't, also trying to understand why they choose not to,” Lover said. “So, some of that involves - if anyone in their house recently had Lyme disease, that kind of thing - to just understand what both what people currently do, and then what might help them do more.”
Itch or no itch, Lover says when it comes to mosquitos, West Nile and EEE, expect cases to start to appear and increase from this point on until the first hard frost of the year, usually around September or October.
