NEW PORT RICHEY -- Pasco County's mosquito control district is scrambling to deal with potential outbreaks of mosquito-borne illness at both ends of the county.
Pasco mosquito control district executive director Adriane Rogers says they were already working on an outbreak of locally acquired dengue virus in mid-September before Hurricane Helene arrived. Helene brought tidal surge to coastal areas near where that outbreak was occurring, bringing in brackish water and creating debris piles for mosquitoes to breed in.
A couple of weeks later, on the opposite side of the county, Hurricane Milton brought more than 15 inches of rain, leading to river flooding that's still going on. River basins and retention ponds are inundated and water is pooling in low-lying areas.
Rogers says Milton created areas in Central and Eastern Pasco that are prime ground for mosquito breeding. It could continue for some time, as mosquito eggs can lay dormant in soil for up to two years. She says those areas are a prime focus for her office while it continues to focus resources on the dengue outbreak near Hudson. Conditions in east county could encourage the mosquitoes that spread diseases such as West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis.
According to Rogers, pasturelands in eastern areas produce different mosquitoes from the ones at the coast that can stand salt water. That calls for a slightly different approach. Right now, flooded roads makes it hard to get trucks to some areas to control the adult mosquito population.
Rogers says her staffers are monitoring both ends of the county, going out in the field daily to look for habitat and proactively treating for larvae by ground, air and truck, and for adults where it makes sense.
Listen to an interview with Adriane Rogers below.
Photo: Canva