UPDATED: Spraying times announced.
WHITING/BRANDON — Vermont Department of Health officials this morning said that lightning and poor visibility made it impossible for them to fully complete the mosquito aerial spraying operation in Brandon and Whiting on Thursday evening.
Spraying of the pesticide Anvil 10+10 will continue tonight between 7:30 and 11 p.m. Officials hope to complete all spraying tonight.
The pesticide, which contains the active ingredient Sumithrin, will be sprayed in very low volume concentrations at dusk when mosquitoes are most active. The time was changed from 8 p.m. last night to 7:30 p.m. this evening to allow for improved safety and visibility.
State officials launched the program to spray insecticide on portions of Brandon and Whiting in order to kill a particular variety of mosquito that carries Easter Equine Encephalitis. Mosquito pools in those two towns that have tested positive for West Nile virus in the last few years recently also tested positive for EEE. Like West Nile virus, EEE is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito.
A Brandon man suffered the first human case of EEE in Vermont and died on Tuesday; a Sudbury man has been hospitalized with the disease.
The Department  of Health made a first application of the insecticide Anvil beginning at approximately 8:15 p.m. on Thursday. Spraying was planned over two 16-square-mile areas near mosquito pools that have tested positive for EEE, and was expected to take two and a half hours.
The Whiting spray zone is centered on Stickney Road between Cornwall and Whiting. The Brandon spray zone lies between Leicester and Brandon along nearly all of Grove Street.
For a map and more information about spraying and precautions to take for people and animals, go to www.healthvermont.gov or www.vermontagriculture.com and click on the About mosquito-borne diseases link, or dial 2-1-1.