Health officials in a number of states including Rhode Island and Massachusetts are looking forward to cold weather because several successive nights of below freezing temperatures will kill off mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus and Equine Encephalitis viruses.
Waiting for frost to kill mosquitoes
Several successive nights of below freezing temperatures will kill off mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus and Equine Encephalitis viruses.
Although a first hard frost of the year will help kill off a majority of the mosquito population, temperatures have to dip below freezing for several nights to effectively kill off mosquitoes and cut down the threat of more West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis cases in both horses and humans.
Temperatures in several north eastern and mid western states are scheduled to dip over the weekend with a frost hitting some areas as early as Saturday.
Because of the threat of mosquito-borne diseases, several states are continuing their programs of trapping and testing mosquitoes for the next few weeks.