• People tend to think of wetlands as standing water where mosquitoes can breed
• On the contrary, healthy wetlands tend to reduce the mosquito population
• The three species of mosquitoes that are most commonly found to carry the disease are Culex pipiens, C. Restauns, and C. salinarious. These three species favour urban areas, and are seldom found in healthy wetlands
• Wetlands support over 400 species of wildlife including frogs, salamanders, fish, birds, bats, dragonflies, damselflies, water striders, diving beetles and other animals that eat mosquitoes, whereas in urban areas, mosquitoes have few natural predators
• A suggested solution has been the draining of wetlands, but this may produce more mosquitoes because it may hold enough water for mosquitoes to breed but not enough to support animals that prey on mosquitoes

According to Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority (http://www.cloca.com), people should be more worried about the flu, air pollution and motor vehicle collisions than about West Nile Virus.