 Hello everyone, I'm Alicia Anderson, and welcome to the Fort Report. Summer is here, and with it comes all sorts of fun out-directivities, such as pool parties and cookouts. Unfortunately, summer also brings us mosquitoes, and these pesky little insects can be more than just a nuisance. Mosquitoes can carry and transmit the West Nile virus. West Nile virus is a virus that's transmitted by mosquitoes through their bite. It's a virus that affects about 20% of the population, and 80% of the people that get West Nile virus will never show symptoms, so it's like you don't really know you have it. It's that less than 1% that actually show a very neurological part of it. It's the neuroinvasive disease of West Nile virus. According to the Centers for Disease Control, some of the symptoms can include a high fever, chills, headache, things like that. The more severe symptoms can actually include a heralization, sometimes a coma, meningitis, things of that nature. If you get mosquito bites, you could get West Nile virus. So prevention is the key. Remember the four Ds. Draining any standing water that you have around your house, mosquitoes have to have water in order to lay their eggs, and so by draining the standing water, you're actually eliminating the source of where mosquitoes can come from. Another type of prevention is wearing the appropriate clothing when you're outside. Maybe long sleeves, long pants, that way you can avoid the bite of a mosquito. And also always wear either deat or some other EPA-approved type of mosquito repellent. Try to avoid activities around dusk and dawn. That's usually when those type of mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus are more active. Try to talk to your neighbors so they can start draining their standing water. The mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus have been known to travel up to half a mile. Usually if they have a good source of food, they're going to kind of stick around to that area. So if you have a lot of mosquitoes in your yard, there's probably a source of it around there somewhere, either your gutters or maybe the flower pots that have the little saucers underneath it that are holding the standing water, things like that. During the peak of mosquito season, which goes anywhere from April to the end of October, the city traps mosquitoes and tests them on a weekly basis. Right now we trap anywhere from 60 to 65 places per week. We do set our mosquito traps at all the fire stations. There's 42 of them in the city of Fort Worth. And we also have some residential sites that we're monitoring as well. We also do trapping in some of the city parks. So if you see kind of traps hanging from a tree, those are the mosquito traps that we set. For more information on mosquitoes and West Nile virus, visit the city's website. And if you see any standing water in the public space, call 817-392-1234. Here's a look at other events happening in and around Fort Worth in the next few weeks. For a listing of more events and city meetings, you always can check the calendar at the city's website.