You’ve heard about the Zika Virus, right? Scary to think it’s transmitted by mosquitoes for the most part. In the past people who came into connecting with Zika didn’t have any symptoms and if they did the symptoms were normally pretty mild.
The Zika virus affects children still in the womb if the mother is infected with the virus. Zika can cause severe birth defects and even severe fetal brain defects, its been linked to neurological disorders, and a few months back I heard that they found out it could be sexually transmitted.
How scary is that? My husband and I are planning on having another child, but we have put things on hold until we find out a bit more about Zika. Not only would I have to take every step necessary to protect myself from a mosquito bite but my husband would need to be just as careful since it can be sexually transmitted by a male to his partner. While there hasn’t been a lot of cases here in the United States, there has been enough to make me think twice about before trying to have another baby.
Ways To Prevent Zika Virus & Help Your Community With Mosquito Control
So how can we protect ourselves from Zika? Here are a few ways to help prevent the Zika virus in our communities and beyond. We’ll get a lot further if we all work together on prevention techniques.
There currently isn’t a vaccine that will prevent the Zika virus from spreading, but there are still steps you can take to help prevent coming into contact with the Zika virus.
Dress the part
I know it’s summer, and nobody wants to wear long sleeves especially if you are pregnant, but we have to do what we have to do to prevent mosquito bites. Wearing long sleeve shirts and pants can help to avoid mosquito bites.
Your home needs covered too
No, not covered with a huge net or anything. However, you will want to make sure you have to air-condition, and all windows and doors have screens. If you are traveling, it’s suggested that you sleep under a mosquitoâs net.
Control
There are things you can do to help control mosquitoes inside your home as well as outside your home. Be sure to do your research and make sure you are doing everything possible.
Repellents
Wear insect repellents that control DEET, IR3535, Picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus or para-methane-diol. Be certain you choose a repellent that is EPA registered, follow the directions, reapply as directed, apply sunscreen before repellent, and avoid spraying it on your skin that is covered by clothing.
Do your research so you can protect your children
Be sure to do your research, so you know the best way to protect your kids from getting mosquito bites.
Think beyond yourself
You can better protect yourself and your family by thinking of the bigger picture and protecting your community. Al you have to do is your part around your home to prevent mosquito bites for your family as well as others.
Have you heard of RISE? Its pretty impressive because it works to education people on the responsible use of pest control products like pesticides and personal repellents that we use for everything from mosquito control to our garden, lawns, homes, and places of business. They also created a useful resource hub debugthemyth.com to help answer some common questions you might run into about those personal repellants and pesticides.
RISE suggests that every mom, dad, homeowner, apartment dweller and everyone else do these four things to help control mosquitoes:
- 1.) Put up some personal barriers
- 2.) Reinforce you home
- 3.) Eliminate standing water
- 4.) Apply mosquito-specific defenses
Since controlling mosquitoes is now more than a comfort issue it would be wise to find professional applicators and vector control officials that can use an integrated mosquito management approach to help keep your, your family and communities safer this summer.
It’s crazy to think the Zika virus has spread so quickly. It makes you realize how to interconnect the world is. While places like the United States might be on top things and actively working to control the mosquitoes and spread of the virus the best thing we can do is practice prevention methods everywhere we go. At the end of the day, we are practicing a team approach that involves not only us but the community, vector control officials, professional applicators, and public health. It’s essential that we educate ourselves and come up with a plan of action to help better protect everyone.
Did you know that a mosquito has four stages to their life? Yes, they sure do. I’ve learned a great deal about Zika, mosquitoes, and the importance of prevention from RISE. I also learned about the states of a mosquitoes life from RISE, it’s rather interesting and helps shed a little light on things we can do to prevent the Zika virus before it even starts flying around trying to bite us. Check it out; there are four stages to a mosquitoes life, which are:
I learned a bit about mosquitoes and their four states of life from RISE which are:
1) State 1: Egg hatches when exposed to water2) State 2: Lara is small “wriggler†that lives in the water, 3) Stage 3: Pupa is larger than larva but still in the water and doesn’t feed, and 4) State 4: Adult leave the water and can fly shortly after.
2) State 2: Lara is small “wriggler†that lives in the water3) Stage 3: Pupa is larger than larva but still in the water and doesn’t feed, and 4) State 4: Adult leave the water and can fly shortly after.
3) Stage 3: Pupa is larger than larva but still in the water and doesn’t feed4) State 4: Adult leave the water and can fly shortly after.
4) State 4: Adult leave the water and can fly shortly after.
Since a mosquito typically lives about two weeks but can live as long as a month, its important that we practice prevention methods. Did you know there are larvae mosquito treatments that are applied directly to the water sources to help prevent larvae from becoming an adult mosquito? There are also adult mosquito treatments used by the public health mosquito control programs to help reduce the flying mosquitos.
#AtoZika Twitter Party, You’re Invited
You can also learn more about managing common pests that are in your community. The site is currently under construction, but they will be back up and running on June 28th Âfor our Twitter Party, so be sure and swing by and check it out.
Yes, we are having a Twitter Party on June 28th, and we want you there! Details are below:
Twitter Party Details
June 28, 2016
Time: 9 PM EST
Where: Twitter follows the hashtag – #AtoZika
Sponsor @DebugtheMuths
CoHosts @SJBlahBlahBlog and others, I’ll update as I find out who the others are.
More info to come as the Twitter Party gets closer, be sure you are following me on Twitter as well as the sponsor and Mom It Forward so you don’t miss anything.
To learn more be sure to visit www.debugthemyths.com.
What are ways you are keeping your family safe from zika virus? Leave us a comment and let us know.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of RISE as a member of the Mom It Forward Community. All opinion expressed are my own.
