West Nile Is Back South of Hackberry — and This Is the Season's Third Southern County Hit

If you live in unincorporated Denton County south of Hackberry, your next few weeks just got more complicated. The virus is in your neighborhood's mosquitoes. Not a rumor. Not a precaution. A confirmed positive trap.

On July 1, Denton County Public Health reported one positive West Nile Virus mosquito trap in unincorporated Denton County, located in the unincorporated areas south of Hackberry and west of Frisco. That makes this the third southern-county detection of the 2026 season — and the pattern is tracking in your direction.

DCPH scheduled fogging in the area near the positive trap three times beginning July 2 through July 8, with truck-based ultra-low volume applications running between 9 PM and 5 AM. That window has closed. Fogging helps knock down adult mosquitoes in the short term, but mosquito life cycles are fast and populations can replenish quickly. The county's spray trucks moving on doesn't mean the risk moved with them.

This detection is distinct from the one in late June. Denton County Public Health previously announced a positive trap in the northwest portion of the Harvest community, located at the intersection of Cleveland-Gibbs Road and Old Justin Road. Two separate spots, both in southern Denton County, both within about two weeks of each other. That's not coincidence. That's what active transmission looks like.

The virus is not a death sentence for most people. About 1 in 5 people who contract West Nile virus will develop symptoms, which usually appear two to six days after an infected mosquito bites and can include fever, headache, body aches, joint pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and rash. But the risk calculus changes depending on who you are. West Nile virus neuroinvasive disease affects less than 1% of people who become infected; it typically manifests as meningitis, encephalitis, or acute flaccid myelitis, with symptoms that can include high fever, headache, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, vision loss, numbness, and paralysis. Older adults and people with weakened immune systems carry the most serious risk. And there is no safety net waiting at the pharmacy. There are no vaccines to prevent or treatments to cure West Nile virus.

Prevention is the whole game. DCPH's guidance is straightforward:

• Drain standing water in your yard and neighborhood — bird baths, flowerpots, clogged rain gutters — to eliminate mosquito breeding sites.
• Consider BTI briquettes (often called mosquito dunks) in standing water that can't be eliminated.
• Dress in long sleeves and pants outside and spray thin clothing with repellent; use an EPA-registered repellent and look for ingredients like DEET, Picaridin, or Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus.
• Mosquitoes bite day and night but are most active at dusk and dawn — health officials recommend avoiding outdoor activities at those times.

One more practical note: Flower Mound and some other municipalities in southern Denton County offer free mosquito dunks — worth a call to Town Hall if you haven't grabbed yours yet.

If you live near the trap zone and develop fever, headache, or body aches within two weeks of being outdoors, contact your doctor or health care provider and mention your West Nile exposure. The full mosquito surveillance map — showing every trap result in the county — lives at DentonCounty.gov/WNV.