BONHAM, TX-Thirty-one people across the state have died from the West Nile virus according to the Texas Department of State Health Services and cases have been confirmed in Grayson, Collin, Cooke and Fannin counties.

Tuesday, the City of Bonham took measures to fight the illness. Victoria Maranan was there as they began spraying for mosquitoes and brings us more.

Noble Resources Pest Control owner Andy McAngus fired up his truck getting ready to spray the city of Bonham Tuesday night .

"We drive through the residence with the truck, we go very slow, it puts out the fog. What we want the residents to do is to go inside while we come through. They will stay inside for about 20 minutes," he said.

"After the one case, there was public concern over the issue so city council decided to go ahead and spray."

Bonham Fire Chief Brad Nichols said city officials approved the citywide spraying at the last council meeting after a Fannin county resident contracted West Nile.

"The state suggests that after spraying, it will reduce the number of mosquitoes by 80 percent," he said.

McAngus said it will take 8 hours to spray the whole city, that's why they decided to spray the eastern side of Bonham Tuesday and the west side on Wednesday.
He said the pesticide they're using is called "permethrin" which is an active ingredient for pesticides you find in the grocery store.

"This chemical will actually get on the mosquitoes and kill them. It's a neurotoxin for mosquitoes, it also kills flies and gnats. But at the rate that we're running, tt's just designed to kill mosquitoes," he said.

"If they have direct contact with the chemicals themselves, it can be washed with soap and water. So once this is itemized and used in the fog, it shouldn't be any amount to affect anybody," said Nichols.

The whole city will be sprayed again after two weeks.

"The mosquito cycle is approximately two weeks because what we're gonna do tonight is kill the adult mosquitoes, this won't do anything for the larva or the pupa. So what will happen is after we're finished and this dissipates, there's gonna be a real emergence of mosquitoes," said McAngus.

"Hopefully by then the weather should be cool enough that we don't have to worry about mosquitoes anymore. It could possibly be longer but currently we're scheduled for two weeks from now," said Nichols.