PROVIDENCE – After recommending that Rhode Islanders consider “smart scheduling” to avoid the risk of mosquito-borne diseases, the state on Tuesday announced it would apply larvicide to kill mosquito larvae at Great Swamp in South Kingstown and Chapman Swamp in Westerly.
The moves come as the state sees more evidence of mosquitoes carrying Eastern equine encephalitis and West Nile Virus in Rhode Island, as well as neighboring states.
Annemarie Beardsworth, a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Department of Health, said, “This year, we are seeing more detections of EEE and WNV in mosquito pools in Rhode Island and neighboring states as well as human and animal cases of mosquito-borne disease in Rhode Island and in communities along our borders of Massachusetts and Connecticut, which has prompted RIDOH and DEM to issue the recommendation for smart scheduling a bit earlier than we have in previous years.”
Rhode Island on Aug. 16 announced the first case of West Nile Virus in a human this season . In New Hampshire, a 42-year-old Hampstead man died from EEE, and Massachusetts announced earlier this month that an Oxford man had contracted EEE. Oxford is about 20 miles north of the Rhode Island border.