MODESTO BEE
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

By BLAIR CRADDOCK
BEE STAFF WRITER

Last Updated: August 16, 2005, 04:32:11 AM PDT

Mosquito-control trucks rolled out before dawn on Monday for the start of a four-day spraying campaign in north Modesto.
The trucks are targeting insects that spread the West Nile virus, which has made 19 Stanislaus County residents sick.

They're spraying pyrethrin, an insecticide used on pets and livestock to control fleas.

"Spray conditions this morning (Monday) were ideal," said David T. Jones, spokesman for the county Health Services Agency.

Winds were calm, he said, so "the fog did a very slow drift; we had time for it to do its job." The spray zone covered the area between Standiford Avenue on the north and Briggsmore Avenue on the south, between Prescott Road and McHenry Avenue.

More than 174 people in California have become sick this year from West Nile virus; the death toll is four, including an 86-year-old San Joaquin County man whose death was reported Friday.

The San Joaquin Mosquito and Vector Control District board, at a meeting scheduled for tonight, is expected to discuss whether to ask the county to authorize large-scale spraying, said Aaron Devencenzi, a spokesman for the district.

Jones said Modesto residents have been "very supportive of the need for the spraying."

He said mosquito control officials received only one complaint Monday about the spraying: A cancer patient who had been receiving chemotherapy complained of breathing difficulty.

Jones said the patient lived some distance from the area being sprayed, so it was not clear if the spraying caused the breathing difficulty.

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