mosquito control

The Collier County Mosquito Control District has found a species never before seen in Collier County.

So far this year there have been almost a thousand travel-related cases of dengue fever reported in the continental United States, with 278 of them coming from Florida. This means someone contracted the disease outside of the country and then got sick once they were back home. There have also been 16 locally acquired cases of dengue so far this year — all of those were acquired here in Florida. Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease, so we sit down with two people from the Lee County Mosquito Control District to learn about their extensive operations.

After cases of malaria were found this year in Sarasota County, experts on Tuesday pointed to a continuing need in Florida to combat mosquito-borne illnesses as rain from Hurricane Idalia has increased breeding grounds for the insects.

The Lee County Mosquito Control District released thousands of mosquitoes in Fort Myers to bring down the population.

The free traps are part of a Gainesville company's donation of 100,000 of the devices.

The Collier Mosquito Control District’s aerial fleet now includes three airplanes and four helicopters.

Collier Mosquito Control District is giving county residents two-inch, guppy-like fish to place in flooded yards, swales, and other small areas of standing freshwater left behind by Hurricane Ian to eat mosquito larvae before they grow up and start bothering everyone.

Scientists with the Collier County Mosquito Control District have found two new mosquito species in the region including the invasive and Aedes tortilis and the Aedes scapularis which can spread yellow fever and Venezuelan equine encephalitis.

The invasive Aedes scapularis and Aedes tortilis mosquitos brings the total number of known mosquito species in Collier to 48.

State health officials reported 9,785 new cases of COVID-19, Wednesday, increasing Florida's total to 379,619 cases of the virus. The Florida Department of Health also reported another 139 coronavirus-related deaths, yesterday, bringing the statewide death toll to 5,345 fatalities.Of the 3,158,741 COVID-19 tests that have been performed in Florida overall, 12.02% have been positive for the virus.