West Nile virus monitoring starts in Schuylkill County

Amy Marchiano, Republican & Herald, Pottsville, Pa.
·2 min read

POTTSVILLE — Kyle Schutt, insect management technician with the Schuylkill Conservation District, said Monday that he has started monitoring for the West Nile virus.

With the current 70-plus degree temperatures lately, it’s “probably going to push an early batch of mosquitoes out,” he said while standing at the Bunker Hill Playground on Pierce Street in the city.

He has seen the pests at the Charles Baber Cemetery, one of the 10 fixed sites where mosquitoes are collected in the county.

Schutt said that he selects sites based on population density and past virus activity. This year, in addition to Pottsville, there are fixed sites in Cressona, Schuylkill Haven and Tamaqua. Five different areas in the county are also selected each week.

On Monday, Schutt placed a mosquito trap at the Bunker Hill Playground, one of many sites he planned to visit.

The West Nile virus, first detected in Pennsylvania in 2000, causes flu-like symptoms and infection and can result in encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain.

Symptoms can show up in people three to 14 days after they are bitten by a mosquito carrying the virus.

The traps, which are checked weekly, use a fan to suck in nearby mosquitoes.

The traps are placed in dry ice to kill the mosquitoes, which are then put in vials and shipped to a lab in Harrisburg.

In the spring, there must be 50 mosquitoes from a trap for the lab to test, Schutt said. In the summer, that number is five.

But if the sample size is too small, the mosquitoes are still examined and the data tracked by Schutt.

Schutt said that it takes “a communitywide effort” to reduce the spread of the West Nile virus.

“There’s a lot of steps residents can take to reduce mosquito habitats and mosquito populations on their property,” he said.

Those include clearing outdoor clutter and dumping water out of places it collects.

“If it’s wetter and warmer, there will be more mosquitoes,” Schutt said.

In 2023, there were 19 positive samples in the county.

To learn more about the virus, visit www.dep.pa.gov, www.health.pa.gov or the Facebook page of the Schuylkill Conservation District.