MODESTO BEE
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

By KEN CARLSON
BEE STAFF WRITER

Last Updated: August 13, 2005, 05:15:20 AM PDT

Mosquito abatement officials contending with the West Nile virus are taking it up a notch, with intensive ground spraying scheduled next week in a large area of Modesto.
If the spraying fails to bring mosquito counts down, aerial spraying in Modesto will be strongly considered, Lloyd Douglass, general manager of the East Side Mosquito Abatement District, said Friday.

And the same goes for Turlock.

"We are hoping that (the ground spraying) works," Douglass told a roomful of reporters at the district office.

A decision on aerial spraying could come late next week, he said.

Starting Monday, the district will use trucks to spray 5,900 acres in Modesto. The sprawling area between Prescott Road and Oakdale Road and Needham Street and Standiford Avenue has been broken into four zones for spraying early Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The insecticide will be released from 3 to 4:30 a.m. each day, when most people are indoors. Residential areas, parks, schools and shopping centers are included.

Douglass said the chemical, pyrethrin, does not hurt people and animals and is not known to damage car paint or other property.

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