West Nile Virus showing up unusually early in Lucas County mosquitoes

Mosquitoes and the West Nile Virus are nothing new in Lucas County.

"We always get positive mosquito pools here in the county," said general manager of the Toledo Area Sanitary District Paul Bauman. "We usually pretty much always have virus activity."

This year sanitary district have a new challenge when it comes to battling the bugs.

"Typically the virus doesn't start to show up in the mosquitoes until a little bit later," said Bauman. "This was at the beginning of June that we were starting to get positives and so we're a little bit concerned."

So far crews have collected mosquitoes from 27 locations across the county. From those spots more than 10 test pools came back positive for West Nile, mostly in Toledo.

"The virus is showing up a little bit earlier than usual and now we're seeing a lot of those types of mosquitoes," said Bauman. "Not necessarily positive yet, but it's going to create that opportunity for that virus to amplify a lot quicker in that mosquito population."

Last year a record 22,000 mosquitoes in the county were tested for the virus.

This year Bauman says crews have already collected more than half that number and weather is likely to blame.

"Those warm temperatures, that standing water is kind of perfect for those populations," said Bauman.

While the West Nile Virus isn't expected to cause problems for humans yet, health officials say you should still be careful.

"The best way to make sure that you stay safe is to prevent from getting bit by mosquitoes," said Toledo-Lucas County Health Department commissioner Eric Zgodzinski.

Zgodzinski recommends wearing long clothes, using repellent with DEET and removing standing water around your home to keep the bugs at bay.

While the CDC says it's rare to show symptoms, experts recommend seeing your doctor if you have concerns.

"West Nile has been here," said Zgodzinski. "We know it's endemic in our community. So we need to be careful."

If you'd like to see where the highest number of West Nile positive mosquitoes are in the county we've posted a link in the sidebar of this story.