If you’d rather not have malathion (what the city uses when they “fog”) sprayed on your garden, on your outdoor cats, or in the air around your house, you should call 311 (645-2489) and ask that your home be exempted from fogging. You should also be sure to keep your companion animals from eating/drinking contaminated items after they spray (you can check the health department’s fogging schedule at www.publichealth.columbus.gov). They also have lots of suggestions about avoiding bites.  And they can put the whole “dangerous” thing in perspective (our risk for West Nile is so far pretty low, from the reports of testing so far this year; I’d hazard a guess that there are no cases of malaria or yellow fever in Ohio in recent history). For the risks of malathion exposure,  check http://extoxnet.orst.edu/pips/malathio.htm ; note that malathion is amazingly toxic to honeybees and that it kills one of the major predators of mosquitoes– dragonflies.  Thus, malathion can actually result in a rebound effect– with a decrease in predators, the mosquitoes come back with a vengeance. Better controls are to wear long-sleeve shirts and use some neem-based repellent.