No spraying inside Austin for West Nile

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Despite 20 cases of human West Nile virus in Travis County, including one death, the problem will have to get much worse before Health and Human Services starts spraying inside Austin city limits.

The virus has posed a much bigger problem in Dallas where they have begun using a plane to spray for mosquitoes.

“Policy was adopted that we do not spray within the city unless there is a public health emergency,” said Phil Huang with Austin-Travis Health and Human Services.

That policy was adopted several years ago amid community concerns about spraying. Instead, larvicide is being used inside bodies of stagnant water.

However, spraying by hand and truck is taking place in the county.

A total of 78 mosquito pools have tested positive for West Nile  all across Travis County.

Health and Human Services has a website showing where the positive mosquito pools have been found as well as numbers and emails people can use to report a mosquito problem.