May 22, 2013
Continued heavy rainfall has caused a spike in Bay County mosquito populations, prompting the county to enlist the assistance of Beach Mosquito Control’s helicopter for an aerial attack on the pests beginning next week.
The helicopter will focus on the more densely populated areas of the county from the east side of the Hathaway Bridge to the DuPont Bridge at Tyndall Parkway and north, covering Lynn Haven.
Meanwhile, the county’s Mosquito Control spray trucks will focus their efforts on neighborhoods in northern Bay County and Mexico Beach.
Traps located throughout the county are recording many more mosquitoes than normal, Bay County Mosquito Control Director Fred Wakefield said. In a typical week, he said, the traps cumulatively might collect about 2,000 mosquitoes. Last week saw collections of about 25,000 mosquitoes in the traps.
Beyond painful bites, mosquitoes cause malaria, West Nile virus, encephalitis, yellow fever and other diseases.
For more information, call Bay County Mosquito Control at 248-8720 or Beach Mosquito Control at 233-5030.
