There’s a downside to the rainy season in Florida: mosquitoes.
Orange County Mosquito Control has seen a ten-fold increase to about 100 calls for service every day.
The calls are primarily for nuisance mosquitoes, not the mosquitoes that can transmit Zika Virus and other diseases. The county urges residents to drain standing water to cut down on mosquito breeding areas.
Kelly Deutsch, manager of Orange County Mosquito Control, said the county is sending trucks out every night to spray – but they do not plan to do aerial spraying.
“That’s not something we’re gonna be doing because we’re trying to treat it from the ground as best we can," Deutsch said. "But there are counties are definitely using that, it’s a good resource to have, especially when you have small staff that can’t get to every single area or there are areas inaccessible by truck.”
Trucks are going out spraying every night, and crews are working overtime.
Statewide, aerial spraying of naled is common, but hasn’t been done in Orange County in six years. In Osceola County last week, mosquito control did two aerial spraying sessions of the controversial pesticide naled, covering 32,000 acres of rural land.
A study recently linked naled with slight motor delays in infants.
