Thursday, 4:30 PM
Spraying urged for EEE along NH border
Kay Lazar, Globe Staff
Disease trackers today recommended truck-based pesticide spraying in four communities along the New Hampshire border after Eastern equine encephalitis turned up in mosquitoes from Amesbury, Haverhill, Merrimac and Methuen.
Unlike southeastern Massachusetts, which has been inundated with disease-carrying bugs this season and has had three people infected with the virus, the suburbs north of Boston had largely been spared before the latest find. Just one pool of mosquitoes, in Amesbury, had tested positive for the virus earlier this month.
"Fortunately for us, it's late enough in the season, so we are hopefully not going to have a problem," said Walter Montgomery, director of the Northeast Massachusetts Mosquito Control and Wetlands Management District, which tracks and kills mosquitoes in 30 communities.
"The past week has been a saving grace for us," Montgomery said. "The cool temperatures have knocked the human-biting mosquitoes down to nothing."
But Montgomery said that with the start of school, and many athletic events slated, officials opted for a preemptive approach. The spraying was scheduled to start tonight in Merrimac. Officials sprayed the entire town last week – one day before the latest sample of EEE-carrying mosquitoes was collected. Sections of Amesbury and Haverhill were sprayed earlier this month.
Just north of there, health officials in New Hampshire said they detected a total of 6 batches of EEE in mosquitoes from Danville and Fremont, communities where the virus had been detected earlier this season. With positive mosquito pools also found in recent weeks in three other nearby New Hampshire towns, state health officials yesteday recommended pesticide spraying in 11 communities in Central Rockingham County, including Atkinson, Newton, Plaistow and South Hampton, which all border Massachusetts.
