State steps up mosquito control after man dies

State officials are increasing their efforts to control the mosquito population after a Ringwood man died from a mosquito-borne disease.
Jeff Bioletti died last October from eastern equine encephalitis. He is the first person to die from the illness in New Jersey since 1984.
His wife Kathy Bioletti tells News 12 New Jersey that her husband came home with a fever one day. She says that he started vomiting the next day, and then began seeing double.
“It was 48 hours from the time that the fever started to when he went into a coma,” she says.
Bioletti never woke from that coma.
“You don’t think of mosquitoes as something that is dangerous,” Kathy says.
Bioletti is believed to have contracted the illness from a mosquito in New Jersey. His wife says that they never went far when they went on their many hikes together. Bioletti also coached soccer many nights at a field through dusk.
Peak times of activity for mosquitoes are dusk and dawn. The state is stepping up its surveillance program to test mosquitoes for the encephalitis. Officials say that they are also increasing the fight against other mosquito-borne disease like the Zika and West Nile viruses.
Officials say that residents can protect themselves from mosquitoes by removing and preventing standing water around homes, cleaning out clogged rain gutters and using bug spray to reduce bites.