Town of Berthoud rejects spraying for mosquitoes, goes against Larimer County Health advice

The Town of Berthoud, located just south of Loveland, will go against the guidance of their county health department and forgo spraying for mosquitoes. In a three-to-two vote among the town's board of trustees, the town elected to skip spraying for mosquitoes even as tests suggested the town's population was surrounded by mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus.

For several weeks the Larimer County Health Department attempted to convince the Town of Berthoud to fog chemicals into the community that help kill the culex mosquito, the type of mosquito that carries and transfers West Nile.

The county health department said testing of traps helps predict the threat of the virus being transferred to humans. When traps result in a vector index of more than 0.5, the threat of humans contracting the virus are probable. For several weeks Berthoud's traps were testing well over 3.0.

Neighboring communities, like Loveland and Fort Collins, were testing significantly lower at the same time.

"Our number, historically over the last couple weeks, has been really high," said William Karspeck, mayor of Berthoud.

Karspeck was one of the two who voted in favor of spraying.

He said many people attended the town's meeting on the topic and expressed concerns with how the chemicals used to kill the mosquitoes impact human and pollinator health.

"There was a significant amount of pushback from doing (spraying)," Karspeck said.

Some expressed concerns that bees and other insects or animals could be negatively impacted by the chemicals.

However, the town was also shamed on social media by many residents for jeopardizing the health of residents by not spraying. Many took to social media, others even called CBS News Colorado, to express their concerns with the drastically high levels of culex mosquitoes and the town's decision to not spray.

CBS News Colorado's Dillon Thomas met Randy Hamann, a longtime resident and farmer in Berthoud, while reporting on the story. Hamann said he understood both sides of the argument.

"It is all the moisture. It is bad. There is standing water everywhere. So, it is a bad year for mosquitoes," Hamann said.

Hamann said he understood why many people would want to prioritize the health of humans by helping cut down on the odds of contracting West Nile. However, he also said he could see why some people felt it was not worth the risk of exposing people or wildlife to chemicals.

"For some people, the small percentage that get real sick, it is a big deal. Most of us, I heard the other day 80-90%, don't even get a symptom," Hamann said.

The mayor provided updated statistics from recent testing that showed the number of culex mosquitoes has drastically dropped in the past week, back to a level that the county finds less threatening to public health. However, it wasn't clear why the number plummeted week-over-week.

Larimer County's health department has the legal ability to conduct spraying throughout the town without its leadership's consent. However, a spokesperson for the department said they did not have intentions of doing so. Both the mayor and the health department said they prefer to keep the conversation going without having to force anyone to do spraying.

Karspeck said he respected the town's decision to not spray, even though he still felt it was the best idea to do so. He said the town's population had a "more libertarian" approach to governing, and that many felt the town should not have the authority to release chemicals into the air that surrounds them.

"I certainly understand people's sentiments about the ecosystem. I don't feel like it is a total destruction to it," Karspeck said.

Karspeck said he felt spraying would help assure more of his constituents would be protected from unnecessary illnesses.

According to Larimer County Health Department several people from Berthoud were hospitalized in 2022 as a result of West Nile.

"(A resident getting sick) weighs on you. You also don't want to be the person pushing yourself into people's backyards, though," Karspeck said.

The mayor said the town will reevaluate whether or not they should spray in the future, saying the decision to not spray at this time could be changed at a later date if needed.