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CNN Live Saturday

Houston Declares War on Mosquitoes

Aired June 23, 2001 - 15:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Not only did tropical storm Allison leave behind billions of dollars in damages after it blew through Houston, Texas, it spawned a new threat: mosquitoes. The pesky insects have taken the nation's fourth largest city by storm, and officials are fighting back. CNN's Jeff Flock is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fog-belching machines launch air strikes. Troops of investigators search out enemy encampments. Children don't go out without being armed. Everyone is subject to the attack by the invaders, and many have the battle scars to prove it.

(on camera): These are bug bites?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

FLOCK (voice-over): In Houston, it's war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're very bad. They're very bad.

FLOCK: War on mosquitoes.

RAY PARSONS, HARRIS COUNTY MOSQUITO CONTROL: The soldiers in this army are small, but the army itself is very large.

FLOCK: Harris county, Texas, Mosquito Control Director Ray Parsons became the general after the floods that killed 22 people and did an estimated $5 billion damage.

PARSONS: There was so much rain that everything got flooded. You know, maybe eggs that had been laying around for years, and we just got this tremendous hatch-off of mosquitoes.

FLOCK: Millions upon millions of mosquitoes, maybe 15 or 20 different species, which they try to keep straight here in Houston's mosquito morgue.

PARSONS: This is what we call our insectory.

FLOCK: Even more serious business here: a kind of prisoner of war camp, where live mosquitoes are kept to test the insecticides used in battle. Insect control specialist Cheryl Harris is serious.

(on camera): Scurge, is that a special kind of formula?

CHERYL HARRIS, HARRIS COUNTY MOSQUITO CONTROL: Scurge is normally used for St. Louis encephalitis, but we find that it does work on the pest mosquitoes.

FLOCK (voice-over): The focus now: eliminating standing water that was prime breading ground. Teams use scoops to test for mosquito larvae. They also field test to determine enemy's strength.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I stand at the site, then you look down and give a rough estimate of the mosquitoes that you see.

FLOCK: Best news: no signs of St. Louis encephalitis or West Nile viruses, and mosquitoes do have a short life. But for now here, war is hell.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very, very bad.

FLOCK: I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, Houston, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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