The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has no plans to spray mosquitoes at the Stoneboro Fairgrounds after all.

Scott Dudzic, DEP spokesman and water pollution biologist, said trapping and surveillance tests Monday night showed there weren't as many mosquitoes as previously thought.

"We're not going to spray there because the mosquito counts are way down," he said.

Ron Carkin, the fair board's president, hopes word about the spraying won't keep fairgoers away. He said the Great Stoneboro Fair normally attracts about 50,000 visitors annually, excluding exhibitors and paid attendants. But a lot of negative talk about the spraying has begun to spread, he said, and he wants the public to be aware.

Spraying was supposed to have occurred Tuesday afternoon. But trapping and surveillance near the fairgrounds found the mosquito population to be much lower than anticipated, to the point that a spraying operation was no longer necessary, Dudzic said.

030509