Tennessee Department of Health encourages you to protect yourself and to ‘fight the bite’

JACKSON, Tenn. — As warmer weather settles in, the Tennessee Department of Health encourages you to ‘fight the bite’.

Some experts say using good quality repellent with Deet, along with wearing long sleeves and pants are just the beginning.

“Mosquito bites are very common around here especially this time of year. Mosquitoes and ticks seem to be particularly nasty this year,” said Wayne Arnold, public information officer with the Jackson-Madison County Regional Health Department.  Arnold says it is rare that any disease is transmitted by those, but precautionary methods are needed.

“…because they rarely fly over 100 yards from where they are born and bred so to speak,” said Arnold.

Arnold said if you have old tires laying around, you need to dump those out regularly, as well as anything that might hold water.

If the body of water is too large, such as a fish pond, that you don’t necessarily want to drain,  Arnold recommends a product called ‘Dunks.’

“You can get Dunks. It is a larvacide that you can put in there that will kill the mosquito larva before they can start flying to bite you,” said Arnold.

Humans are not the only ones who can suffer from insect bites.

“Heart worms are transmitted by mosquito bites, so your dogs are susceptible to those too. The best thing to do for that is a good preventive treatment like flea tick collar or a heart worm preventive,” said Arnold.

Junior Hughes, assistant store manager of R and J Feed Supply said they have a few items on their shelves to help if you have insect issues.

“Use about 3 to 4 teaspoons a gallon in it… We’ve also got it in a powder called ‘Bug Blaster’. You just scatter this over your yard like you are using fertilizer with a little spreader and it will kill them all out,” said Hughes.

Hughes and Arnold both recommend a clean cut lawn.

“If you don’t keep your grass down low, you can’t see them and you don’t know what is in there until it’s too late. You need to get out and mow your grass and spray for them and they will go away,” Hughes added.

Arnold said keeping your yard mowed back helps eliminate the ticks and also helps natural predators of ticks, such as birds, find them easier.

The Tennessee Department of Health said the mosquitoes that spread common diseases and illnesses are aggressive daytime biters.