West Nile In Amarillo, TX.? It’s Here, And The City Is Helping.

You may have noticed more mosquitoes buzzing around Amarillo, TX. lately. Yes, it's the season for them, but all the rain we've gotten has brought them out in full force. You can't even go out for a day of shopping without spraying yourself down with bug spray.

They're even making their way into your home thanks to any kind of crack it can find, so you might even consider wearing bug spray while you lounge around your house as to try and avoid bites. Now, I'll give you even more of a reason to do that.

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The City of Amarillo did some testing on the pesky visitors and came back with some not so great news. Yes, some of these mosquitoes are carrying West Nile Virus as well as St. Louis Encephalitis.

Now West Nile Virus is something we've heard about for decades as being something to watch out for. Way back when it was first introduced to the world, it was making people extremely sick and even killing some along the way.

St. Louis Encephalitis is one you may not have heard of though, and it's a sneaky one. While West Nile typically comes with symptoms you can pick up pretty quickly, most people that are infected with St. Louis Encephalitis don't even have symptoms, making it difficult to figure out if you've been infected with it.

To combat the potential spread of these viruses, the city has started to spray outside the city limits which is something that typically isn't done. By doing this, it will limit the mosquitoes from coming into the city and dropping the population of them while decreasing the risk of these viruses reaching us.