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8.30.2000 08:14
Spraying may help, but West Nile is here to stay
 Monday's spraying against mosquitoes went smoothly, but a DEM official stresses the effect is only temporary, and the insects will return.
By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Journal Staff Writer
Some huddled indoors, watching videos and ordering takeout, as the flashing lights of the police entourage and the long plume of white pesticide mist passed by outside.
Others hit the bars and restaurants as if it were an ordinary night. For most in Newport and Middletown, Monday's mosquito spraying went without a hitch.
"I personally feel that the three departments [police, public works, and parks and recreation] which worked on the effort did an outstanding job," said Susan Cooper, Newport's director of parks, recreation and tourism. "They showed a good team effort."
The spraying followed the discovery of West Nile virus in a dead crow found at Cliff Terrace. Another crow was found earlier this month in Warwick and more recently in Westerly, which also conducted mosquito spraying on Monday.
Last night, a similar plan was scheduled at the Naval Station in Newport, as the Navy conducted its own spraying.
West Nile is a virus native to Asia, Africa and the Middle East that first appeared on this continent last year in an outbreak in New York City. It lives in birds, particularly the American crow, and can be transmitted to humans via mosquitoes. It is rarely fatal in humans but can be life-threatening to the elderly and infirm; there is neither a treatment nor a vaccine.
In Middletown and Newport, the spraying started Monday night at 7 p.m.; while Middletown finished in only two hours, Newport, did not finish spraying until nearly 1 a.m.
Officials had been apprehensive about the public response to the spraying. But the biggest problems Monday night were rig breakdowns.
One sprayer broke down twice and had to be retired, Cooper said. Another sprayer broke down just before midnight, the town's planned spraying deadline. As a result, the work continued an extra 45 minutes.
Helmbrecht reported that Middletown residents had no trouble with the spraying. In Newport, Cooper said, people seemed similarly unphased.
"I looked in many of the restaurants and they seemed pretty full," she said. However, other residents chose to stay home.
"One woman told me she had rented a couple of videos, so she could stay home with her kids and have a little party," Cooper said. "I ordered Chinese food and they were happy that somebody was coming to pick it up, because they were running around delivering to everyone."
The substance sprayed, Sumithrin, was very mild, Cooper said -- the same ingredient used in flea collars and baths for pets. Newport used approximately 56 gallons of spray, Cooper said. But only 4 percent of that was active pesticide; the rest was a mineral oil mixture. "For 92 miles of road, that's not bad," she said.
Yesterday, the state Department of Environmental Management set mosquito traps in Newport and Middletown, as well as Westerly. By noon today, they expect to be able to tell whether the mosquito population has been reduced.
Al Gettman, the DEM's mosquito abatement director, stressed that the spraying is only a temporary technique. "People see that scene on TV of the spray truck going through and think everything's okay, but that's not true," Gettman said. Even if the spraying is successful, he said, the mosquitoes will be back in a few weeks -- or days.
Gettman said that because the virus is new to this continent, efforts to combat it have not become routine. "It's yet to be known how this virus will behave next year," he said. "We're learning this year how to deal with it. One thing's for sure -- it's here to stay."
For now, both towns say they plan more larvaciding, but will wait for instructions from the DEM before spraying again. For Susan Cooper, the next step at parks and recreation is a return to business as usual.
"We're signing up for fall soccer," she said. "This is what we normally do. [The mosquito spraying] is just a little blip on the screen, a situation that you deal with. It comes along and it's taken care of."
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