In Houston last week, helicopters swooped low over bayous to lay thick mists of insecticide, and fire engines raced from block to block to spray chemicals in vacant lots. Citizens lined up to receive free handouts of bug-killing Malathion, and even kids at play carried spray guns to squirt at anything that flew.
It was all part of the city's sudden war on mosquitoes, sparked by a dangerous and spreading epidemic of St. Louis encephalitis, or SLE, which is more commonly known as sleeping sickness. In the past eight weeks nearly 400 Houstonians have been hospitalized and 19 have...
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