While two U. Illinois students bike their way through the area, West Nile Virus slips further and further away from Champaign County.

As mosquito abatement bikers for the Champaign-Urbana Public Helath District (CUPHD), Kathleen Doran, recent graduate of ACES and Claire Keating, a senior in Fine and Applied Arts and Illini Media employee, travel around Champaign County to spread mosquito larvicide to help prevent the coming of West Nile Virus, a disease of the brain transmitted through infected mosquitoes. The CUPHD hired the two students as part of the district’s special program to reduce Culex mosquitos, the insects that cause the disease, said Jim Roberts, director of environmental health for the CUPHD.

In order to begin work, Doran said her and Keating had to obtain a pesticide license to certify they knew how to properly spread the mosquito larvicide. Although there are other methods to kill West Nile-causing insects, such as using gas, Keating said she thinks using the liquids is the best way to go about the process.

“It doesn’t affect people at all. It’s going directly to the source,” Keating said.

“I think it’s green,” Doran added, referring to the environmental effects of the larvicide.

Keating said both bikers travel around Urbana, Champaign and Savoy and inject the larvicide into places that catch stagnant water, such as street sewers. These “catchbasins” are the main breeding areas for Culex mosquitoes, as they are attracted to stagnant water. Because these catchbasins exist everywhere, she said her and Doran need to stop at almost every street corner in Champaign County to apply larvicide to something.

Melaney Arnold, spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), said the IDPH encourages cities to utilize larvicide for mosquito prevention. She said biking is a smart way to go about the process.

“Maybe they can get closer to some of the pools than they would in a car,” Arnold said.

Although the job may seem tedious and possibly even grueling during the recent high temperatures, both students enjoy what they do, and would not mind doing it for another summer.

“It’s nice to be outside everyday,” Keating said. “We see a lot that you normally wouldn’t see every day as a student.”

While the health district has done surveillance for West Nile in the past, this is the first year the CUPHD has hired abatement bikers, Roberts said. The job was previously done by the Natural History Survey on campus until 2009, when the CUPHD took over.

Since both students are seasonal employees, the abatement process will continue on for the rest of the summer and end before the fall begins.

Keating said the city’s effort is one of the few in the state: Champaign County is one of the only counties in Illinois to adopt the biking method as a way to prevent the spread of the virus.

Both students, decked out in bright yellow T-shirts, said people notice they are unique bikers and stop them to ask about their job. Keating said many times, residents will approach students and ask about prevention methods.

“People here are really curious,” Keating said.

While area residents continue to be curious, Keating said people do not take the virus as seriously as they should.

“I feel like people kind of forget about the West Nile Virus, but it’s still an issue,” Keating said.