Aerial and truck-mounted ground spraying for mosquitoes began Tuesday night in more than a dozen Massachusetts communities amid heightened fears and the risk of the rare but deadly Eastern Equine Encephalitis and West Nile viruses.
Ten communities in Plymouth and Worcester counties were raised to high or critical risk for EEE after state health officials announced last week that a man in his 80s had caught the disease, the first human case found in Massachusetts since 2020.
Aerial spraying will be conducted in Carver, Halifax, Kingston, Middleboro, Plymouth, Rochester, and Wareham. Truck-mounted ground spraying will happen in Douglas, Dudley, Oxford, Sutton, and Uxbridge.
The state noted that the spraying will continue for additional days, and the timeline is subject to change due to upcoming variable weather patterns.
State and local health officials urged people in those towns to avoid the peak mosquito biting times by finishing outdoor activities by 6 p.m. until Sept. 30 and then by 5 p.m. after that until the first hard frost.
They …