New Yorkers have a new way to stay on top of mosquito surveillance in the city with an interactive website the city’s health department launched this week.
The site includes a map that shows up-to-the-week updates on which neighborhoods were treated for the pesky bugs, as well as standing water violations that were issued.
“This interactive map will give New Yorkers information about our mosquito surveillance and control activities as it happens in their communities,” Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in a statement. “Every day, members of our mosquito control team are collecting surveillance traps, investigating complaints of standing water, and using our tools to reduce the mosquito population.”
New Yorkers can check if their neighborhoods were treated with aerial, backpack or catch-basin larviciding, which the health department said targets young mosquito larvae that grow in standing water, or with adulticiding, which sprays adult, flying mosquitoes from a truck.
So far, a total of six larvaciding and five adulticiding spraying events have taken place in areas of all five boroughs.
The agency said the new website is part of its $21 million plan to fight the potential spread of Zika in the city.
As of Aug. 12, there have been 463 travel-related cases of Zika reported in the city, but none have been contracted locally, according to the health department. There have been no human cases of West Nile virus reported this summer.
