Brevard Mosquito Helicopters to Spray Multiple Locations
By Space Coast Daily // June 11, 2013
TARGETING AREAS IMPACTED BY TROPICAL STORM RAINFALL
ABOVE VIDEO: Information about “Container Breeding Mosquitoes”, especially the “Asian Tiger Mosquito” and how to keep them away from your home Brevard County Mosquito Control will be spraying from June 12-14. Video courtesy of Indian River Mosquito Control District.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – After Tropical Storm Andrea dumped as much as three inches of rain, Brevard County Mosquito Control will be spraying various locations across the Space Coast.
Preventative efforts started last March, but recent heavy rainfall prompted more action. Brevard Mosquito Control has field staff working seven days a week throughout the county beginning at 6:30 a.m. to approximately 2 a.m. conducting field counts, monitoring traps, dipping for larvae, larviciding and adulticiding, (killing adult mosquitoes).
Chris Richmond, Operations manager at Brevard Mosquito Control explained how mosquito and their larvae are monitored after heavy amounts of rainfall.
We have about 90 surveillance sites that we monitor and we use that surveillance to decide when and where we go,” Richmond said.”We’re constantly larvae siting, We have people treating stagnant pools of water, whether its a marsh, or tire. the only thing different will be the aerial response, for the flying adults. That’s an extra precaution. We’re doing an aerial treatment of the marshes along Banana River drive [Merritt Island] and the Thousand mile area around cocoa beach in order to prevent flying mosquitoes.”
MOSQUITO FACTS
- Salt marsh mosquitoes lay their eggs in moist to dry soil just above the current water level and wait for rain, tidal fluctuations or other water rise events to submerge the eggs so they can hatch.
- A square inch of salt marsh soil has been known to hold over 20,000 mosquito eggs.
- Any rain event will cause mosquitoes to hatch in a 5 to 7 day period in any area that holds water.
