Texas officials hold West Nile classes at Home Depot, Lowe’s

The City of Fort Worth, Texas, has announced that it will hold do-it-yourself help sessions for dealing with mosquitoes and the threat of West Nile virus at a number of Home Depot and Lowe’s locations.

Tarrant county residents can attend Saturday and Sunday classes at Lowe's or Home Depot on Aug. 25 and 26. (The weekend seminars began in early August.) Classes will focus on mosquito eradication and methods for eliminating nesting areas in and around homes, apartments or condos.

While the most common advice is to drain standing water, there are some situations where this can’t be done. In these cases, public health officials recommend treating standing water with Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti). Bti can be purchased at hardware stores or retail garden centers.

West Nile Virus is a disease that spreads from birds to humans through infected mosquitoes. Cases have been reported throughout the United States, with nearly half of them concentrated in Texas. Northern Texas has been particularly hard hit, and a number of cities have begun aerial spraying. The mayor of Dallas called a state of emergency on Aug. 15.