Louisiana’s West Nile virus hot spot is taking aim at back yard swimming pools turned to mosquito breeding grounds.
An ordinance giving the city power to order them cleaned up is likely to come before the Shreveport City Council at Wednesday’s meeting, said Councilman Thomas Carmody, who proposed it.
Carmody did not know how many backyard pools have gone stagnant around the city, but said he knows of four just in his district.
Most are at vacant houses belonging to someone who has left Shreveport and hasn’t kept up the property, he said Monday.
He said people have been calling with complaints about “slime on tops of pools, and mosquitoes in the area,” since last summer, when the West Nile virus first became a public health concern in Northwest Louisiana.
As of last week, Caddo Parish had 32 of the state’s 60 cases, and Bossier Parish had five. Carmody said the single death statewide was in his district of Shreveport.
The West Nile season is expected to continue into November, although health officials said earlier this week the number of cases appears to be waning.
