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Westchester to Offer Minnows for West Nile Prevention

Free minnows will be given out on Friday and Saturday for people to place in ponds. The fish eat mosquito larvae, the county notes, which can help combat the West Nile virus.

As part of its work to fight the West Nile virus, Westchester County's Department of Health will be giving away free fathead minnows on Friday and Saturday for residents to place in their ornamental ponds.

The ponds, the county's announcement states, could serve as mosquito breeding grounds, including for mosquitos who carry the virus. The minnows eat mosquito larvae and pupae; a variant of the insect, the culex pipiens, breed in standing water bodies.

The food chain-based strategy has worked before, the county notes.

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“I hope residents will take advantage of this opportunity to help us curtail the mosquito population,” said Dr. Sherlita Amler, the county's health commissioner, in a statement. “This is a natural strategy that has proven effective in county parks and in other jurisdictions, so we want Westchester residents to share this benefit.”

One-hundred of the minnows will be available, with distribution times on Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and again on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. The minnows can be acquired at 2 Loop Road, Building One, which is at the Westchester County Airport.

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