The heavy rain in Southwest Florida on Friday brought a lot of standing water and mosquitoes were not far behind.
We spoke with Eric Jackson, the Deputy Director of Lee County Mosquito Control District to see how they’re going to handle all the new standing water. Jackson said they’ll have crews going out Sunday by ground and by air all over the county.
Since the standing water formed recently, for now, scouting is the plan. They plan on going to areas where there is standing water to scout potential problematic mosquito areas.
Jackson did say that it takes about a day or two until they can actually see the larvae.
Early in the week, after the inspections on Sunday, Mosquito Control could start doing some larvacide treatments.
Jackson then explained how you at home can help by searching your home for standing water and dumping it out.
“People really should look around their homes and see if they have any, any containers any debris,” Jackson said. “Even a palm frond may have fallen down that’s that’s tucked away behind their house that’s holding water is a potential breeding site. So, bird baths, flower pots, anything like that. That’s holding water? They should dump that water out.”
Jackson also said that they’ve been doing pre-treatment the last few weeks because of high tides and the rain. But, with a storm like yesterday, there’s a lot of standing water and mosquitoes could be hatching.